1-54 Paris opens at Christie’s

Art Market

Mous Lamrabat, Fresh from the garden of Compton, 2019. Courtesy Loft Art Gallery

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, the leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora, holds its first-ever fair in Paris from Wednesday 20 to Saturday 23 January at Christie’s Avenue Matignon location and online.

 

Delphine Desane, Peculiar Tint, 2020. Courtesy Luce Gallery

The fair welcomes 20 international exhibitors: 31 PROJECT (Paris, France); 50 Golborne (London, United Kingdom); Galerie Dominique Fiat (Paris, France); Galerie 127 (Marrakech, Morocco); Galerie Anne de Villepoix (Paris, France); Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire/ Dakar, Senegal); Galerie Eric Dupont (Paris, France); Galerie Lelong & Co. (Paris, France / New York, USA); Galerie  Nathalie Obadia (Paris, France / Brussels, Belgium); GALLERIA CONTINUA (Beijing, China / Havana, Cuba / Les Moulins, France / San Gimignano, Italy / Rome, Italy); Gallery 1957 (Accra, Ghana / London, United Kingdom); Loft Art Gallery (Casablanca, Morocco); Luce Gallery (Turin, Italy); MAGNIN-A (Paris, France); Nil Gallery (Paris, France); POLARTICS (Lagos, Nigeria); SEPTIEME Gallery (Paris, France); THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE (Luanda, Angola); THK Gallery (Cape Town, South Africa); Wilde (Geneva, Switzerland).

Prince Gyasi, The 12 Powers. Courtesy Nil Gallery

1-54 online, powered by Christie’s is now open physically and online. The online platform allows global audiences to view and buy all works presented as well as instantly organize shipping through new technology from fair partner Convelio.

1-54 SPECIAL PROJECT

In the foyer at Christie’s, 1-54 presents Aloalo, a new installation showcased by the non-profit organization Azé, in collaboration with André Magnin and Emmanuel Perrotin. Originally erected to honor deceased relatives, aloalos are traditional sculptures that have been crafted by the Mahafaly from south Madagascar since the 18th century. This special project brings together work by Efiaimbelo, one of the first sculptors to have painted aloalos for decorative purposes. Each aloalo depicts a situation inspired by daily life, fairy tales, or legends, the knowledge of which has been shared down by the clan since the teachings of his ancestor Soroboko.

Kwesi Botchway, Metamorphose in July, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery 1957

1-54 FORUM

This special edition not only welcome galleries from across Africa and Europe, but also 1-54 Forum, the fair’s multi-disciplinary program of talks, screenings, performances, workshops, and readings

Entitled Crafting wor[l]ds: for a vernacular economy of art and curated for the first time by LE 18, the only navigating through, but also engaged with the deep material and epistemic fractures produced and reproduced by capitalism, modernity, and (neo) colonialism over the past centuries. While questioning the very role that the artist can play in a world in crisis, 1-54 Forum looks in particular at the ways in which new ecologies of cultural practices are emerging, drawing from vernacular principles and circular dynamics. The all-digital program is taking place over the evenings of the fair, and then throughout the month of February.