1-54 PARIS 2022 : discovering the galleries and artists of the next fair in the premises of Christie’s auction house

Beyond being a seller or a dealer, the activity of a contemporary art gallery is to showcase its artists. Its job is to find and support a number of artists by keeping their work with collectors and institutions.

The galleries get their supplies from the artists, either by taking works on deposit or by acquiring them, and use means to valorize their artists by exhibiting them in their spaces, by making publications or by participating in fairs which are both a commercial position and a social place which take into account the legitimization of contemporary creation.

It is in this perspective that art fairs such as the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair are unavoidable in the art market and constitute a snapshot of interest for the public, welcome collectors who are not necessarily loyal to the galleries presented and offer the possibility of access to new buyers and especially to retain them. It is also a position of communication, which makes it possible to be recognized on the market of the art and to affirm its dynamic presence.

We will introduce you to the galleries that will participate in the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair which will take place from April 7 to 10 at Christie’s auction house.

AFIKARIS

Founded in 2018, AFIKARIS started on the web and evolved into an exhibition space before moving to 38 rue Quincampoix, near the Centre Pompidou in Paris. AFIKARIS showcases the work of African artists, those of its diaspora and plans to give them global visibility through exhibitions, fairs and joint efforts with institutions.

AFIKARIS strives to be a place of exchange that engages audiences in dialogue and intensifies the voices of its artists as they address current issues as well as key topics in their work. It is a framework for reflection on the contemporary African art scene that highlights emerging and established talent.  

For the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair which will take place from April 7 to 10, 2022, AFIKARIS will present the artist Omar Mahfoudi who paints, photographs and records the inconsistencies of his country and the contemporary world then presents the emptiness and a kind of existential isolation fill his works with secrecy and form artistic creations that are both oxymoronic and faithful to life.

African Arty

African Arty is a gallery dedicated to the art of the African continent. This showcase offers tailor-made assistance to artists in their vocation to advance their work and promote their opportunities through exhibitions and international fairs.

Through a network established over the years on several continents, African Arty establishes associations with institutions and curators in order to interface with the different actors and find new skills.

African Arty proposes, in accordance with its annual program of international fairs, exhibition spaces in Casablanca and Paris. For the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair which will take place from April 7-10, 2022, African Arty will present Chiderah Bosah who explores inner discourses on the self through contemporary representations that analyze the human soul and presents key elements of creation in a rich tone, while maintaining her exceptional brushstroke that emphasizes an unmistakable non-abrasiveness, Cinthia Sifa Mulanga who combines strategies such as intaglio, linocut and silkscreen in her work that addresses legislative issues regarding domestic space and ideas of magnificence in an Afropolitan context, and Tsoku Maela who focuses on inspirations that fuel cultural issues through the perception and investigation of human conduct and spirit.

DADA Gallery

DADA Gallery champions artists whose practices reflect the times and develops new ways of making art speak. It has gained notoriety by introducing the most interesting artists from Africa and its diaspora to crowds around the world. It focuses on promoting artists who explore a wide range of topics, such as youth, personality, sexuality, and social and financial issues.

DADA Gallery was established in 2015 as an online journal that brought together government issues and art, it has progressed and shifted its focus to creative and vivid ways to welcome crowds and attract with its roster of young energetic artists. Now, the gallery presents exhibitions in its London and Lagos spaces, while maintaining a strong digital presence with web exhibitions. For the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair taking place April 7-10, 2022, DADA Gallery will present Senegalese Djibril Drame who strives to provide insight into socially important and questionable issues that influence our current reality, Emily Moore who she says applies both to her creative methodology, to the condition of contemporary artworks and the fast-paced discussions surrounding visual language, Ivorian visual artist Nuits Balnéaires who works between photography and film, and Okiki Akinfe who investigates how human behavior and the mind are communicated through friendly connections.

Didier Claes

Didier Claes is a Belgian gallerist and a considerable authority in the world of African art for over 20 years. Noted for his discoveries of remarkable pieces early in his career, he is one of the most prestigious experts in ancient African art. He is a member of the Belgian Chamber of Art Experts, the Royal Belgian Chamber of Antiquaries and the French National Union of Antiquaries. Didier Claes is also vice-president of the Brussels Antiques and Fine Arts Fair and president of the Brussels Non-European Art Fair.

His gallery, created in 2002, participates in important worldwide events, including TEFAF in Maastricht and New York, the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris and Frieze Masters in London, AKAA and 1-54. The Didier Claes gallery thus intends to advance the discourse between contemporary creations and traditional African art.

For the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which will take place from April 7 to 10, 2022, Didier Claes gallery will present the artist Kendell Geers, who studies in his creations the entanglements of history and the complexities of personality.

Everard Read

Founded in 1913 in Johannesburg, Everard Read is one of the most experienced and important galleries in Africa. With exhibition spaces in London, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Franschhoek, Everard Read strives to increase the openness and dissemination of quality contemporary art.

An important supporter of South Africa’s generally vibrant cultural existence, Everard Read and its sister gallery CIRCA maintain a strong and extraordinary identity. Their exhibition programs are often accompanied by publications that showcase experienced contemporary artists as well as young talent. Although artists from the UK, Europe, Japan and America are featured, Everard Read is focused on an amazing line-up of South African artists. For the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which will take place April 7-10, 2022, Everard Read will feature artists Blessing Ngobeni, who has forged an exceptional vocation and remains a bearer of extraordinary style and assessment of political systems, and Lady Skollie, who revolves around topics such as orientation, gender, and governmental issues related to desire, as well as her ideas on personality.

Françoise Livinec

Françoise Livinec‘s galleries open an exchange between French, Chinese, Korean, Iranian and Japanese artists. In addition to a proximity of style and an anchoring in the whole existence of civilizations, the works exhibited by the gallery reflect a general addressing. Its programming is shared between the Parisian gallery and its 2000 m² art space, called the girls’ school, in Brittany. For the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which will take place from April 7 to 10, 2022, the Françoise Livinec galleries present the artist Adjaratou Ouedraogo, who studies the deep wounds of her youth that are linked to the disappearance of her mother and also makes energetic films.

Carole Kvasnevski Gallery

Founded in 2010, the Carole Kvasnevski Gallery organizes exhibitions in its current space in Paris and also participates in international art fairs.

Galerie Carole Kvasnevski presents the work of artists from the African continent and its diaspora, addressing emerging artists such as Justin Ebanda and Lindokuhle Khumalo, as well as established artists like Angèle Etoundi Essamba and Zanele Muholi. The curatorial line of the Carole Kvasnevski Gallery is essentially articulated around creations that provoke ecological and societal questions.

The Carole Kvasnevski Gallery is associated with numerous institutions such as the École Nationale Supérieure d’art de Paris-Cergy, the École Nationale Supérieure d’art de Clermont-Ferrand Métropole, the Institut français, the Cité internationale des arts de Paris, the Musée Bargoin and the Centre d’art contemporain de Meymac.

For the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, April 7-10, 2022, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski will present Cameroonian contemporary artist Justin Ebanda whose creative methodology is based on the scrutiny of aggregated memory by drawing on African and global history through people and event observers.

Cécile Fakhoury Gallery

Galerie Cécile Fakhoury opened its doors in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in 2012 and hopes to advance contemporary art across the African continent through the enhancement of a perpetual outreach setting.

Galerie Cécile Fakhoury draws attention to the imagination and creative variety in Africa through exhibitions, fairs, biennials and joint efforts with international galleries. Emphatically established in their individual characters and histories, the artists Cécile Fakhoury addresses distinguish themselves by using a visual language that destroys barriers and rejects topographical demonization. Furthermore, these artists share an interest in connecting with chronic histories, protecting the living memory of their nations, and reclassifying their connections to the world.

In 2018, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury opened a new space in Dakar, and a showroom in Paris. Then in 2020, a third space in Abidjan to introduce planned programming for young African artists and a fourth exhibition space in Paris in 2021. For the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which will take place April 7-10, 2022, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury will present artists Dalila Dalléas Bouzar for whom painting is the most ideal focal point for her ongoing examination of women’s liberation and examples of mastery, François-Xavier Gbré who draws on the language of engineering as an observer of memory and social change, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien who creates works that address themes of femininity, character, the body and matrilineality and Roméo Mivekannin who crafts his own customs while drawing on Voodoo cosmology and returning us to a context marked by colonization, places where memory and time become the very material of his works and method.

Nathalie Obadia Gallery

Since its first gallery in Paris in 1993, the Galerie Nathalie Obadia has been committed to supporting emerging contemporary artists. For a long time, it has also focused on the rediscovery of lost artists such as Martin Barré, Josep Grau-Garriga and Seydou Keita.

Galerie Nathalie Obadia opened an exhibition space in Brussels in 2008, followed by another in Paris in 2013. In the fall of 2021, she opened another space in the Matignon-Saint-Honoré area of Paris.

For the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair April 7-10, 2022, Galerie Nathalie Obadia presents Nú Barreto who communicates solid imagery through structure, shading and examples, Seydou Keïta who had run the most popular photography studio in Bamako and immediately gained fame in Mali and throughout West Africa for the nature of his prints and the complexity of his representations and Youssef Nabil who created appropriate images, while exploring different avenues regarding various arrangements.

Gallery 1957

Gallery 1957 features leading artists working across West Africa and the diaspora. Launched by Marwan Zakhem on Ghana’s Independence Day in 2016, Gallery 1957 has since expanded to three exhibition spaces in Accra, dedicating its program to driving global exchange between artistic practices.

Its London space opened in October 2020 and provides an additional stage through which to show Gallery 1957 artists while offering an enriching program, installations by leading scholars.  Beyond its roster of artists and exhibitions, international partnerships and the creation of a residency program have brought many artists and experts closer to the rich Ghanaian contemporary art scene.

For the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair April 7-10, 2022, Gallery 1957 presents artist Joshua Oheneba-Takyi who has assimilated the act of mixing paints and painting over material on his own and through his peers and Yaw Owusu who transforms the value of useless materials into wonderful curiosities.

HOA Galeria

Established in São Paulo by Brazilian mixed media artist Igi Lola Ayedun, HOA Galeria is Brazil’s leading black-claimed art gallery. Dedicated to a decolonial view of Latin American contemporary art, HOA Galeria focuses on artists in the shadows, investigating the histories of indigenous and African diasporas.

HOA Galeria represents fourteen emerging artists and has gathered a network of over forty specialists from all over Brazil who are committed to building an alternative vision of Afro-Brazilian culture in their local environment.

For the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair taking place April 7-10, 2022, HOA Galeria presents artist Bertô who researches the thought of the bedroom in the suburbs and the dislodging of bodies in these areas in light of topics related to Christianity, blackness and the regular brain science of connections, Juliana Dos Santos who focused on the blue shade of the « Clitória Ternátea » flower, examining the chance of shading as a tactile implication with the most common way of extending faculties, Mariana Rocha who solves through her creations the issues related to the body, Mestre Didi, who seeks to give meaning to the stylized components of Yoruba tribal custom in authorial structures, in which he consolidates an individual taste in exchange with the perpetual quality and custom of the first African culture, Rubem Valentim, who participated in the renovating development of artistic expression that began in Bahia in the 1940s, and Sidney Amaral, who problematizes issues of character, extending the Brazilian imaginative discussion on the representation of the contemporary black man.

Jack Bell Gallery

Jack Bell Gallery opened in London in 2010 with the aim of presenting, engaging with and championing contemporary artists from around the world. Its program includes 12 regular exhibitions, as well as art fairs in London, Paris, New York and Singapore. Jack Bell Gallery artists have participated in exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Seoul Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, and the Saatchi Gallery, among others.

In 2020, Jack Bell Gallery opened a space in Sydney, Australia and will present for the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair the Ivorian artist Aboudia, known for his vigorously layered and fiercely fiery artworks that combine blamelessness and suddenness with the depiction of a dull inner world.

Katharina Maria Raab

Katharina Maria Raab was premiered in 2015 in Berlin. The main goal of this gallery’s program is to support the exchange between artists from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Katharina Maria Raab caters to a range of artists from around the world who are interested in investigating current social and cultural issues. In the long term, she has participated in various world art fairs and coordinated exhibitions with organizations and other galleries around the world.

She will present for the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair the Egyptian multidisciplinary artist Ahmed Kamel who deals with the mental vision of self and its visual representation on an individual and collective level, as well as the experience between various networks, Fatiha Zemmouri who deeply concerned with the investigation of materials, ranging from charcoal and grilled wood to clay and porcelain in order to outwardly address different periods of human transformation and life pattern, Hicham Benohoud who began his imaginative excursion with self-portrait photography, a medium he continues to repeat, and has expanded his current cycle to merge mixed and new media and Mahi Binebine who offers to see the limits of the human condition, reducing figures to contours.

Kó

kó is a space located in Lagos, Nigeria, dedicated to the promotion of modern and contemporary art and the advocacy of Nigerian artists of the modern period and the celebration of emerging and aspiring contemporaries in Africa and the diaspora.

kó was founded by Kavita Chellaram, a collector and initiator of Arthouse Contemporary in Lagos. She has played an important role in the development of the contemporary art market in Nigeria. And has established since 2015 the Arthouse Foundation which offers a non-profit artist residency program in Lagos.

Kó will present for the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair the artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji who will offer her hand-sewn drawings in paper.

Gallery 38

Founded in 2010 after the meeting of two enthusiasts, Fihr Kettani and Mohammed Chaoui El Faiz, Casablanca-based La Galerie 38 lends its walls to emerging and experienced artists, continually striving to explore the imagination and participate in the advancement of the contemporary and metropolitan art scene.

Since its launch, La Galerie 38 has worked on contemporary art, addressing more than 10 prominent artists such as Abdoulaye Konaté, Soly Cissé, Amparo Sard, Fathiya Tahiri and Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo and many others.

Through its various exhibitions, La Galerie 38 supports and promotes the work of great artists. It positions itself as a gathering place, a space for creation and artistic dissemination for all audiences and presents for the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair the artist Abdoulaye Konaté whose early works already reflected his constant interest in political and deep subjects with a symbolism imbued with a kind of weirdness, Younes Khourassani who never ceases to test and produce his own style, unique in its kind, far from the conventional plastic practices pre-calculated, Ghizlane Agzenaï known for his beautiful mathematical symbols and dynamic shadows transport the eye in an aspect where everyone can communicate his feelings without reserve and Mohamed Hamidi who launched an activity to promote the advancement of the city of Azemmour through expressions, hosting a score of painters in 2005 to understand a progression of works of mural painting in the medina

Loft Art Gallery

Since its creation in 2009 by Myriem and Yasmine Berrada Sounni, Loft Art Gallery has endeavored to present the cutting edge contemporary art scene on the African continent.

Located in Casablanca in the Golden Triangle area, Loft Art Gallery has become in no time a fundamental part of the contemporary African art scene and a central element of the Moroccan economic and cultural capital. Initially dedicated to local contemporary art, Loft Art Gallery has expanded to include artists from the rest of Africa and Europe.

Loft Art Gallery has continued to enrich the art scene with programs, publications and exhibitions and will present for the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair the artist Mous Lamrabat who rethinks the photography style that he treats with incongruity as a method of denouncing society and mixes showy extravagance and falsification according to Moroccan social references and Amina Rezki who communicates her deep desire to pay attention to her impulses and studies their solidarity and depth through works described by a solid presence of figuration.

LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery

After 30 years of commitment to the advancement of African expressions with her first gallery, Arts Pluriels, Simone Guirandou-NʼDiaye created LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery with her daughter, Gazelle Guirandou-N’Diaye, in 2015.

LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery supports contemporary artists including Alun Be, Dimbeng, Ernest Dükü, Ablade Glover, NʼDoye Douts, Yseult YZ Digan, and Dominique Zinkpè, as well as designers like Ousmane MʼBaye and Jean-Servais Somian.

Through a rich program and its investment in global fairs, LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery provides its artists with a stage in Côte d’Ivoire and abroad. As an art historian and driving force behind artistic expressions in Côte d’Ivoire, Simone Guirandou-N’Diaye organized the main Abidjan International Fine Arts Fair in 2011. She is a member of the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Culture of Africa and the African Diaspora and the International Association of Art Critics.

LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery will present for the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair artist Ange Dakouo who focuses on Malian social heritage, particularly that of the Dozo trackers, guardians of ancient supernatural information and Sess Essoh who draws on writing, theory, persuasions in his work to provide the links between the creative mind, history and human science in his works.

MAGNIN-A

MAGNIN-A is a contemporary art gallery in Paris, founded in 2009 by André Magnin and coordinated by Philippe Boutté, it deals with the advancement of contemporary African art, addressing both established and emerging artists.

MAGNIN-A works energetically and confidently to promote and disseminate the work of its artists through international fairs and exhibitions.

For the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, it will present artist Ana Silva who diverts the essential use of raffia bundles or various doilies into a work of memory with a gently recommended story behind trimmings and nets where female figures are revealed and Romuald Hazoumè who revisits history and its exploration to give birth to striking works that testify to his responsibility in the face of all types of current enslavement, defilement, trafficking and abuse.

Nil Gallery

Nil Gallery is a contemporary art gallery and artistic residence located in the Marais area of Paris. It was established in 2016 by French founders Hugo and Paul. Since the beginning, the two benefactors have planned to give the gallery a global aspect by partnering and organizing various presentations around the world.

Nil Gallery maintains a non-selective but extremely warm link with artists from Africa and will present for the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair the artists Fathi Hassan tries different things with the composed and expressed word, investigating the subject of ancient dialects erased by expansionism through photos, paintings, installations, drawings or texts composed directly on deliberately disordered dividers to highlight the situation of lost dialects and oral history due to settler control and Prince Gyasi who took his first photos using an iPhone in order to break creative patterns and question the elitism of art.

Primo Marella Gallery

Founded in 1992 in Milan, Primo Marella Gallery has always been dedicated to the promotion of emerging artists by organizing exhibitions and distributing books and catalogs in collaboration with internationally renowned curators and experts. Its exhibition program focuses on artists from different districts of the world, always with the specific aim of studying complex and ever-changing scenes, and partnering with galleries, organizations and collectors.

Primo Marella Gallery has experienced a significant development over the long term. In December 2004, it opened another space in Beijing, followed in 2007 by the launch of another space in Milan, planned by world-renowned designer Claudio Silvestrin.

Primo Marella Gallery will present the artists Abdoulaye Konaté whose stripes used as a common theme in his textures allude to the usual outfits of Senufo artists, Amani Bodo who depicts through a psycho-scholastic examination and a precise method brought in Lingala, the « Mwangisa », or a kind of trickle down on the material, Januario Jano who created his own visual jargon where the material characterizes the result of his work, in a stylized or accounting way, Joël Andrianomearisoa who makes mathematical syntheses while attributing a real presence to the materials and reinforcing the link between the question and the structure and Troy Makaza who chose to imagine his own medium, silicone implanted with ink and paint, which he can shape, paint, weave and model.

Sabrina Amrani

Sabrina Amrani opened her eponymous gallery in Madrid in 2011. French of Algerian origin, Sabrina Amrani was confronted with various societies and customs while growing up. This motley childhood turned into a vision shared by many of the artists she works with. She reaches out to artists around the world and aims to bridge cultural gaps and advance dialogue, exchange and scientific development across borders.

Sabrina Amrani Gallery focuses on recommendations that invite viewers to reflect on society and the individual, examining topics such as personality and space, as well as attempting to solve socio-political problems. She regularly coordinates and participates in unpaid activities such as screenings, studios, school programs, public discussions and debates with relevant and well-known names in her space.

In January 2019, Sabrina Amrani opened a second space in Madrid. She will present for the next 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair the artist Alexandra Karakashian who in her work perceives her origin in her own and her family’s ancestry, and reflects on recent concerns of exile, relocation and rules of exclusion, Amina Benbouchta who studies the complex social constructions of contemporary life through these different mediums, Joël Andrianomearisoa who is concerned as much as possible with the cooperations of space, light and shade, revising Josef Albers‘ examination with solid and authentic constructivist suggestions to offer each creation the different feelings and Mónica de Miranda who depends on metropolitan prehistoric study subjects and individual topographies.

The Breeder

The Breeder was founded in 2002 in Athens by Sabrina and George Vamvakidis. It grew naturally from The Breeder magazine that was launched in 2000 and from the need to create a creative exchange between Athens and the world. In recent years, The Breeder has played a pioneering role in enhancing the contemporary art scene in Greece. It is accessible to artists of all identities, genders and religions, supporting a deeper agreement and free exchange of thoughts and beliefs in contemporary art.

As of 2019, The Breeder offers The Breeder Open Studio as a way to attract with the creation of imaginative practices. A few times a year, the exhibition space is changed into a studio space for four to about a month and a half, facilitating a hosted artist’s studio.

For the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair to be held in Paris, The Breeder will present artists Adegboyega Adesina with her close-up images of black subjects with rich ranges of shading and a unique sense of character, Deborah Segun who praises different groups of women through research on form, shading and image, and Victor Kenechukwu who approaches likeness as a demonstration of narrative and depicts his subjects through an iconographic focal point, connecting individual stories and understandings with elements of Nigerian culture, imagery and sayings.

The Third Line

Established in 2005, The Third Line is a Dubai-based gallery that caters to contemporary Middle Eastern artists on a local, provincial and universal level. Spearheading art and emerging voices from the region and its diaspora, The Third Line has developed a unique program that examines the diversity of practice in the region.

In addition to its exhibitions, The Third Line participates in the creation of art publications in English and Arabic, and hosts a variety of non-profit projects that enrich the discussion of art, film, music and writing in the Middle East. The Third Line represents artists Abbas Akhavan, Fouad Elkoury, Hassan Hajjaj, Youssef Nabilet Zineb Sedira and will present for the upcoming 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair artist Anuar Khalifi, who creates sumptuous, point-by-point, vivid artworks, that reward the keen eye with captivating layers of meaning with components that blend reality and fiction to oppose generalizations about the Middle East while inspiring an innocent naiveté in an effort to destroy the norm of Orientalism.