The 14th edition of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair has returned to London's Somerset House, bringing together contemporary artists and a new section dedicated to African modernism. Curated by art historian Nancy Dantas, "West Wind" highlights mid-20th-century artists including Ibrahim El-Salahi, Bertina Lopes and Seyni Awa Camara, placing their work in conversation with the present.
Across the fair, artists explore how memory, identity and place can shape new creative languages. Nigerian-born Ekene Emeka Maduka presents paintings inspired by her school years, transforming remembered architecture and experience into dreamlike scenes. Holly Rollins, meanwhile, combines design and sculpture in household objects that reflect on cultural inheritance, including a chair made from 3D-printed recycled plastic.
Damilola Opedun's paintings imagine a future for Lagos's Makoko waterfront through a visual dialogue with Venice. Elsewhere, Buqaqawuli Nobakada uses lace and vivid scenes of leisure to envision spaces of joy and possibility for Black women. Artists also turn to textiles, ceramics and unconventional surfaces: Yvanovitch Mbaya repurposes denim in a work about belonging, while Alpha Odhiambo's paintings on industrial mesh shift in appearance with changing light.
Together, the presentations connect artistic traditions with fresh approaches to material and form. By widening the conversation around African modernism and contemporary practice, the fair points toward a future in which more histories and perspectives help shape the global art landscape.
