Aesthetics of Resistance: Visual Art as Political Agency in Military and Democratic Transition Periods in Nigeria

Visual art in Nigeria has historically functioned as a site of political resistance, encoding critique, protest, and alternative visions of social order in aesthetic forms that both communicate to informed audiences and evade direct censorship. This study develops an original theory of aesthetic resistance as a form of political agency and applies it through a historical and comparative analysis of visual art produced during Nigeria's military regimes and the transition periods to democratic governance. The theoretical contribution is a framework of aesthetic resistance that identifies three registers of political agency in art: the declarative, in which artworks make explicit political statements, the allegorical, in which indirect symbolism encodes political critique, and the disruptive, in which formal innovation challenges hegemonic aesthetic conventions as a political act. The empirical component analyses artworks, artist testimonies, exhibition records, and censorship incidents from four historical periods: the Gowon era, the Abacha regime, the Obasanjo democratic transition, and the current Tinubu administration, drawing on archival research at the National Archives and interviews with 20 artists who practised during these periods. Geographic coverage spans works from Lagos, Benin City, Enugu, and Kaduna. The theoretical framework draws on political aesthetics theory, the critical theory of cultural resistance, and the art historical literature on protest art globally. The original contribution is both the theoretical model and the first systematic comparative historical analysis of visual art as political agency across Nigeria's political transitions. Findings contribute to political art history, Nigerian political studies, and resistance theory. Keywords: aesthetics of resistance, political art, Nigeria, military regime, democratic transition