Preview: A First Look At 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair’s Ambitious Return To London

Celebrating its 10th anniversary in London, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair is set to return to Somerset House over the course of four days from 13–16 October 2022. As the leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora, 1-54 London 2022 will host 50 international exhibitors across 21 countries, its largest number of countries to date. “We are delighted to celebrate 1-54 London’s 10th anniversary with our flagship edition at Somerset House, where we have shown since our inception in 2013” tells 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.” Ahead of the fair’s anticipated launch, Something Curated shares a preview of what is in store.

Dawit Adnew, Zero Gravity, 2022 (Addis Fine Art)

Based in Addis Ababa, Dawit Adnew attended the Alle School of Fine Arts & Design. Working from both images and live models, the artist’s practice is informed by his studies into masks and African iconography, and his use of patterns and fabric emerges from his experience as a textile designer. Surrounded by blooming flowers and creeping foliage, the women depicted in his canvases seem to communicate wordlessly with one another, drawing the viewer into their silent dialogue. In the recent years, Dawit has been included in various exhibitions in Addis Ababa, Kenya, and Malta. Presented by Addis Fine Art, Adnew’s new work Zero Gravity will be on display at the upcoming edition of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair.

Patrick Bongoy, PARODY 1, 2021 (This Is Not A White Cube)

Represented by Angola-based gallery This Is Not A White Cube, Patrick Bongoy was born in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. He currently lives and works in Cape Town. The textured surface of his works are the result of a painstaking process of cutting and weaving together strips of hessian and rubber. This complex technique, carefully layered in a three-dimensional relief, draws on traditional basket making skills while referencing the difficult colonial histories and physical labour which defines day to day living in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Grada Kilomba, O Barco / The Boat, 2021 (Somerset House)

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Somerset House is presenting the large-scale critically acclaimed installation, O Barco/The Boat, by interdisciplinary artist Grada Kilomba, in the Somerset House courtyard open now and on view until 19 October 2022. The striking 32-metre-long installation is composed of 140 blocks, the configuration of which outlines the lower ‘hold’ of an historical European slave ship. Individually charred by the artist, the textured surfaces of several of the blocks are intricately inscribed with poems in 6 different languages. Directly addressing the history of European maritime expansion and colonisation, the piece invites the audience to consider forgotten stories and identities of those who were enslaved and suffered during this period.

Souleimane Barry, Les Pieds Dans L’eau, 2021 (Galerie Anne de Villepoix)

Born in 1980 in Burkina Faso, Souleimane Barry remembers a free and happy childhood in Bobo Dioulasso. There, his curiosity and imagination led him to draw and experiment from an early age. In his works, the artist seeks to depict the human condition in a certain universalism but also in its singularity, exploring the individual evolving in a distinct cultural and social environment. Residing in France for a number of years, the artist confronts the cultural assets and foundations in which he grew up in Burkina Faso with another reality, that of his daily life, rich in his encounters. The fact of traveling, of moving but also of having expatriated intensifies his painterly universe.  

Asemahle Ntlonti, Khongozela, 2021 (WHATIFTHEWORLD)

Born in 1993 in Cape Town, South Africa, Asemahle Ntlonti graduated from the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2017, where she majored in sculpture. Coinciding with her studies, the multidisciplinary artist was part of performance collective iQhiya, a network of young Black women artists based in Cape Town. Expanding on her sculptural works, the artist explains: “My sculptures are based on miniature objects that you’d find everyday at home, but I enlarge them: for example, matchsticks… Or like the safety pendant, where I also incorporate beadwork. Each piece tells a story.”

Aïcha Snoussi, Watch Me, 2022 (Galerie La La Lande)

Born in 1989 in Tunis, today Aïcha Snoussi lives and works in Paris. Snoussi’s work questions the notions of identity and the validity of norms and classifications through drawings and installations that combine fiction and archives. By blurring the tracks of reality to show the vestiges or traces of a history that they have reinvented, the artist develops a personal mythology that refers to episodes of our contemporary history while summoning intimate references. Borrowing from the aesthetic codes of science fiction and archaeology, and fusing together the temporal extremes of the ancient past and the distant future, their work questions the relationship of drawing and object to history, to memories, to ruins, to what remains, in poetic arrangements.

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair runs at Somerset House, London from 13–16 October 2022. Buy tickets here.



Feature image: Souleimane Barry, Les pieds dans l’eau, 2020. Courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Anne de Villepoix.