ABOUT

Adora Mba is the Founder and Managing Director of ADA Contemporary, a platform dedicated to nurturing Africa’s art community and building meaningful connections with global audiences and institutions.

As a Nigerian-Ghanaian raised in London, Accra and Lagos; Adora spent her formative years cultivating her ties between her African roots and British upbringing. Her extensive travels across the continent and internationally to Europe, Asia and the United States, led her to develop a keen interest in contemporary art. At a time when the African art scene was seldom exposed, she soon grew aware of the local creative industry’s undiscovered yet considerable potential to resonate with a global audience.

In 2017, she launched The Afropolitan Collector, an art advisory platform specialised in the acquisition, cultivation and promotion of contemporary art and design from Africa and its global diasporas. In parallel, Adora introduced The Collector Series, an initiative bringing together HNWI global collectors of contemporary African art eager to uncover new talent on the continent.

Working with a range of clients and art organisations from government and non-profit, to auction houses, museums, galleries, and independent artists, she witnessed a striving yet bounded local artistic scene and market, lacking the infrastructure necessary to achieve its full potential.

Born out of a necessity to respond to this need and her individual desire to support the artists who had inspired, and continued to, inspire her, Adora founded ADA Contemporary in 2020, a physical gallery space in Accra, Ghana that showcased groundbreaking artists to the global market but also fostered a community that nurtured talent and encouraged dialogue between local and international art markets.

Since opening its doors in 2020, ADA Contemporary has been instrumental in positioning Accra as a vibrant cultural hub. The gallery has hosted local and global exhibitions of critical acclaim that drew the attention of major international institutions including Tate Modern, The Serpentine, The Louis Vuitton Foundation, The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Zeitz MOCAA. ADA Contemporary’s participation in art fairs, such as 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, further cemented its reputation as a leading space.

Among her many accolades, Adora Mba was featured on CNN as one of the female trailblazers across Africa shaping the future of industries; Cultbytes Power List 2025; and included in CULTURED Magazine’s inaugural Young Dealer List, recognised as one of the top young global galleries.

In 2025, after five transformative years at the forefront of contemporary African art, ADA Contemporary closed its physical space and transitioned into an art entity that will continue to champion artists and the industry through diverse platforms and global partnerships. ADA Contemporary’s digital presence – website and online channels – will remain as a point of connection for curatorial projects, advisory services, collaborations, institutional support, community outreach programs and artistic engagement.