For ten years now, 1-54 has been the leading art fair dedicated to promoting the artistic and intellectual effervescence emerging from the African continent and its diaspora. After a very successful edition in New York last May, it is in the heart of London’s Somerset House, the emblematic place that saw the fair’s birth and growth, that 1-54 will celebrate its tenth anniversary from October 13 to 16. To highlight these ten years of the impetus for contemporary African art, a bet initially ambitious but quickly won for the founder Touria El Glaoui, she made sure to orchestrate an exceptional edition for this fair that has not ceased to thrill the art market since its debut in 2013. 

We are delighted to celebrate 1-54 London 10th anniversary with our flagship edition at Somerset House, where we have shown since our inception in 2013” says Touria El Glaoui, Founding Director, 1-54. “This milestone will see a bigger fair take over more space at Somerset House with a special courtyard installation and performance by the talented artist Grada Kilomba, which I can’t wait for the UK public to experience. We are looking forward to welcoming new galleries and artists along with our loyal regulars who have been on this journey with us for the past 10 years, without whom, we would not be here. — Touria El Glaoui, founder of 1-54 African Contemporary Art Fair

Significant numbers give substance to the scope of this tenth edition: 50 specialized galleries from 21 countries, the largest number of countries represented to date, will exhibit more than 130 African and diaspora artists whose approaches are as varied as their mediums. Of the 50 galleries present, 17 are established in Africa and 14 are attending the fair for the first time.

Overview and the emergence not to be missed 

For both connoisseurs and neophytes regarding contemporary African art, the 1-54 fair remains an essential moment to add to one’s list of favorite works and artists to discover. For example, portrait enthusiasts will be delighted by the stoic and powerful subjects of Nigerian painter Collins Obijiaku or the “Black kids from the hood” portraits of African-American Auudi Dorsey, both represented by Luce Gallery. For naive art and expressionism lovers, a visit to the Unit London gallery is a must to contemplate the work of the Zimbabwean artist Option Nyahunzvi, whose works serve as a medium to probe Shoa spirituality. Or at the THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE gallery where the eye will be delighted by the rhythmic paintings of Angolan artist Cristiano Mangovo who shares with the universe of the young Malian artist Famakan Magassa of the Albertz Benda gallery a free aesthetic and a bright palette. Sculpture enthusiasts are suggested to stop by the Montoro12 Gallery booth where the surrealist sculptures of South African artist Cow Mash will be highly appreciated for their intriguing essence or those of Namibian Stephane E. Conradie who plays with the effects of entanglement of domestic objects to explore the colonial history and creolization.

Alongside renowned artists such as Ibrahim El-Salahi, a key figure in African modernism, and photographers Hassan Hajjaj and Zanele Muholi, young emerging artists are not to be missed. Working and living in London, Sola Olulode, born in 1996, offers visuals of black and queer female intimacy in tender and profound scenes of connection that can be seen at the Berntson Bhattacharjee Gallery. Let’s also highlight the work of the young Brazilian Pedro Neves exhibited by the Portas Vilaseca Galeria. His large format works are the result of his ongoing research into the historical complexities, particularly in relation to colonization, and identities that form the cultural fabric of his native country. For the 25-year-old artist, who presented his first solo exhibition Tripa earlier this year, this participation in 1-54 marks an important moment in his career.

A rich parallel programme

Alongside the exhibition, visitors to this tenth edition will definitely have something to enrich their visit with the remarkable agenda of activities organized for the occasion. 

A mandatory stop for visitors on Thursday and Friday is the Somerset House courtyard, where Grada Kilomba‘s huge installation O Barco/The Boat unfolds. At 32 meters long, the installation, composed of 140 charred wooden blocks engraved with multilingual poems, draws the shape of the lower hold of a former slave ship. The work addresses the memories of the Atlantic crossing in a singular poetry, which commemorates and lays the foundations for a common reflection on the future memorial forms of these millions of life stories marked by the transatlantic trade. While O Barco/The Boat has been on view at Somerset House since September 29, 2022, it is at 1-54 that the work will take its full form, with two dancing, singing and musical performances scheduled for October 13 and 14 respectively. No need to applaud the fair’s commitment to making this poignant work a major event in its program, a notable choice considering that the installation will come to life in the heart of a city historically charged regarding slavery. These performances will be presented for the first time to British eyes.

The fair will also feature its traditional 1-54 Forum, a fruitful platform for dialogue between audiences and African and Afro-descendant artists, art historians and curators. Curated and directed by Omar Kholeif, the discussions are expected to be powerful moments of intellectual exchange, addressing issues of concern to Africans and the Diaspora. Topics to be discussed include black visual culture, the British anti-racist art movements of the 1980s, the tensions between tradition and contemporaneity in art, everyday racism, and the notion of “Africanity” from an identity perspective.

Finally, the 1-54 will please both the eyes and the taste buds. Moroccan-born artist Hassan Hajjaj will present “Love Letter,” a tea specially created for the fair that brings together a rich selection of spices and herbs from all over Africa, from vanilla to cocoa shells from Ghana to orange blossom from Tunisia. More than just a tea, these sweet and spicy notes make this aromatic blend a true taste journey through the richness of the African continent. Also, those visiting the VIP lounge will be greeted by a multi-sensory installation, the Chop Bar, a conceptual work by chef and restaurateur Akwasi Brenya-Mensa that takes the form of traditional Ghanaian chop bars, those roadside stalls where hearty portions of banku, fufu and omo tuo are served. With plastic chairs and tables, old gas cans as stools and paper napkins, the young Ghanaian-born chef seeks to immerse his guests in a personal interpretation of the African restaurant of the future and pay homage to the women behind this rich culinary heritage.

After ten years of dedication, sharing and highlighting African and Afro-descendant artists in the spotlight of the international art world, the 1-54 fair has continued to establish itself as a leading voice for contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. It is one of the most influential and ambitious extra- and intra-African events of its kind, with four recent editions in Marrakech and one planned for February 2023. This is all the more reason to make it your destination of choice this weekend.

Artskop3437 media partner of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair

1-54 London 2022

From October 13 to 16

Somerset House, 

Strand, London WC2R 1LA,

United Kingdom

The post 1-54: a decade of promoting contemporary African art celebrated in London appeared first on Artskop.

The exhibition begins with artists of the Windrush generation who came to Britain in the 1950s, including Denis Williams, Donald Locke and Aubrey Williams. It will explore the Caribbean Artists Movement, an informal group of creatives like Paul Dash and Althea McNish, whose tropical modernist textile designs were inspired by the Caribbean landscape. The rise of Black Power in Britain will be shown in works such as Horace Ové’s photographs of Stokely Carmichael and Neil Kenlock’s Black Panther school bags 1970. The exhibition will also include a new iteration of Michael McMillan’s The Front Room, a reconstruction of a fictional 1970s interior, evoking the role of the home as a safe space for social gatherings at a time of widespread prejudice.

Works from the Black Art Movement of the 1970s and 80s depicted the social and political struggles faced by second generation members of the Caribbean-British community. Photographs by Dennis Morris and Vanley Burke present everyday scenes of love, family and social life in the midst of struggle and hardship. Major uprisings in the 1980s will be explored in works such as Isaac Julien’s Territories 1984, showing the conflict between carnival revelers and the police, and Denzil Forrester’s Death Walk 1983, a tribute to Winston Rose who died in police custody. Other artists looked back to colonial history and its continuing resonance. Keith Piper’s photo-collage Go West Young Man 1987 connects the horrific dehumanisation of Transatlantic slavery with the media’s demonization of young Black men, while Ingrid Pollard’s Oceans Apart 1989 conveys the co-existence of the Caribbean and Britain, past and present, through intimate everyday scenes.

The exhibition will continue with artists who emerged either side of the millennium. While the Caribbean-British population forged new identities and communities in Britain, it also became embedded in British culture from reggae and dub to annual carnivals. Some artists chose to move in the opposite direction from Britain to the Caribbean, including Peter Doig and Chris Ofili who relocated to Trinidad in 2003. Lisa Brice and Hurvin Anderson have also both made paintings inspired by their time on the island, including Brice’s After Ophelia 2018 and Anderson’s Maracas III 2004.

The exhibition will end with artists who have emerged more recently, many of whom revisit themes encountered earlier in the show. It will include new works created especially for the exhibition, including new designs by Grace Wales Bonner evoking the brass bands and parades of the Commonwealth Caribbean, Marcia Michael’s multimedia collaboration with her Jamaican mother connecting her voice and body to generations of history and memory, and a photographic installation by Liz Johnson Artur charting the early development of south London’s Grime music scene.

Life Between Islands is curated by David A Bailey, Artistic Director of the International Curators Forum, and Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain. It will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue from Tate Publishing and an anthology entitled Liberation Begins in the Imagination: Writings on British Caribbean Art from Tate Publishing and ICF the International Curators Forum.

Life Between Islands Caribbean-British Art 1950s – Now 

Until April 03, 2022

Tate Britain

London, United Kingdom

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