Original Story Published by: Taylor Dafoe for Artnet News
Photography courtesy of: Galerie Cecile Fakhoury for Artnet News
(Above) Kassou Seydou, Mame Line do not forget (2018).
From an SUV adorned with 70 million beads to a booth inspired by the artist's grandmother's living room, see our favorite works at the fair.
While VIPs melted on Randall’s Island at Frieze New York, the scene at the opening of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in Red Hook, which runs at Pioneer Works through May 6, was downright breezy.
This is 1-54’s fourth annual edition in New York—one of three international locations for the fair. The oldest edition, founded in 2013, takes place in London, while the newest launched in Marrakesh earlier this year. Each one has a distinct personality; only a handful of galleries participate in all three.
“The New York edition of the fair is special because of the communities of people it draws,” Touria El Glaoui, the founder of 1-54, told artnet News during the VIP preview. “We attract African American artists, as well as those coming from the Caribbean, the African diaspora, and many other African communities living in New York. We also have an existing collector base of African Americans that we’re touching in New York that we don’t have in London or Marrakesh.”
This year’s fair hosts 21 exhibitors and the work of more than 60 artists ranging from the established (Yinka Shonibare) to the emerging (Terrence Musekiwa, Ralph Ziman, and others). These offerings, combined with a slate of particularly strong special projects, combine to produce a fair that is both manageable and endlessly interesting. For those looking to buy, it’s also (somewhat) affordable: prices range from a few thousand dollars to more than $100,000. Most work hovers in the four- to low five-figure range.
To read the full article, visit Artnet News.
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