©PHUMZILE KHANYILE
The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair returns to New York this May for its fourth edition, bringing together 18 galleries from Africa, Europe, and the United States to its usual digs at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. The fair will open during the week of Frieze New York, and it will run May 4 to 6.
Of the participating galleries, five have locations on the African continent, including Afronova in Johannesburg, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and Retro Africa in Abuja, Nigeria, which will participate in the fair for the first time. Half of the galleries hail from Europe, including Vigo Gallery in London, Officine dell’Immagine in Milan, and Katharina Maria Raab in Berlin. Four of the galleries are New York–based, including Sapar Contemporary and James Cohan Gallery, who will show work by Yinka Shonibare MBE and Elias Sime.
“For us, it’s quite important to be able to come back because New York is an amazing market and it has quite an important number of institutions to see the artists we’re presenting,” 1-54’s founding director, Touria El Glaoui, told ARTnews by phone.
The 1-54 fair was first held in London in 2013. It has since expanded to include an annual New York edition, and it recently launched a fair in Marrakech, Morocco. The first edition of the Marrakech fair closed this past Sunday and, over the course of its two-day run, attracted a large number of collectors from throughout French-speaking Europe and Africa. (The London edition, on the other hand, traditionally attracts a more English-speaking audience.) El Glaoui said that one of the reasons the New York fair is important is that it puts the work of African and African diaspora artists in dialogue with the U.S. art world while also attracting an African-American collecting audience.
“To have a New York outlet through which to show the wealth of creativity coming out of West Africa is integral to asserting our position on the global art stage,” Marwan Zakhem, the founder of Gallery 1957 in Accra, Ghana, said in a statement.
The full list of participating galleries follows below.
50 Golborne (London, United Kingdom)
Afronova (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Aicon Gallery (New York, United States)
Catinca Tabacaru Gallery (New York, United States)
Elmarsa (Dubai, United Arab Emirates/Tunis, Tunisia)
Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)
Gallery 1957 (Accra, Ghana)
Jack Bell Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
James Cohan Gallery (New York, United States)
Katharina Maria Raab (Berlin, Germany)
MAGNIN-A (Paris, France)
Officine dell’Immagine (Milan, Italy)
Retro Africa (Abuja, Nigeria)
Sapar Contemporary (New York, United States)
Sulger-Buel Lovell (London, United Kingdom)
TAFETA (London, United Kingdom)
Tyburn Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
Vigo Gallery (London, United Kingdom)