Reflections on 1-54 Art Fair 2025: The Pulse of Contemporary African Art in London
Every October, Somerset House becomes a meeting point for the imagination, the memory, and for the global reach of the African community's creativity. The 1-54 Art Fair, now in its thirteenth edition, has grown from a modest gathering of 17 galleries into a cultural landmark that feels inseparable from London’s art calendar. For anyone invested in the future of African and diasporic art, this year’s fair was a reminder that the movement is not a trend, but a sustained redefinition of what contemporary art can be.
Walking through the corridors, the first impression was scale - 43 international exhibitors from 13 countries filled Somerset House, with a strong contingent from across the African continent. What stood out this year was not quantity but the conviction and selectiveness of what was displayed. Every room carried a sense of purpose - a quiet but firm confidence that the artists here belong at the center of the global arts conversation.
The heart of the fair was Mónica de Miranda’s monumental courtyard installation, Earthworks. Described as “a living, breathing ecosystem - a participatory botanical installation that fundamentally rethinks our relationship with the natural world,” the work transformed the fountain court into a green sanctuary of reflection. De Miranda’s interdisciplinary approach blurred the line between sculpture and landscape, inviting visitors to inhabit rather than observe. Her creation was both poetic and political, a meditation on ecology and decolonial futures that set the tone for the fair’s broader conversation about coexistence and consciousness.
Mónica de Miranda transforms the heart of the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court with 'Earthworks', a large-scale social sculpture [Photo: Sabrina Amrani 2025]
A sense of dialogue - between tradition and innovation, heritage and reinvention - carried through many of the special projects this year. Art Comes First’s The Sartorial Spirit of Punk Tailors was particularly magnetic, reimagining British tailoring through African craftsmanship. As one critic wrote, it was “a philosophy of precision, care, and defiance,” and that spirit of defiance felt contagious. Textiles were not just displayed, but performed - built, deconstructed, and rebuilt. It was a tribute to discipline and rebellion, stitched together.
The Sartorial Spirit of Punk Tailors exhibit explores the tension between tradition and rebellion through the lens of African craftsmanship and British tailoring history [Picture: Art Comes First Instagram]
Elsewhere, Le Salon, the collaborative project by designer Oliver Spencer and visual storyteller Harris Elliot, created one of the fair’s most vibrant gathering points. Modeled after a traditional Black barbershop, the installation combined fashion, art, and community in an easy rhythm. Elliot explained that it drew inspiration from “West African hand-painted barbershop signs,” while celebrating “the art of conversation.” Visitors could watch, listen, and participate - a reminder that art, at its best, still happens between people.
Among the many artists on view, a few works stayed with me after leaving Somerset House. Ugonna Hosten’s graphite work The Departure was one of them. It is a deep personal reflection on her father’s funeral that layered grief and the ritual into a single composition. Her ability to capture emotion through delicate technique made it feel almost cinematic. As noted in one review, her work “overlays several snapshots of the same day,” blending memory and mourning into something quietly transcendent.
The Departure (2025) by Ugonna Hosten [Photo: Ed Cross Fine Art]
From SOTO Gallery, Nigerian artist Ife Kalejaiye presented a painting that I believe will provide roots to a successful career. His work, exploring “the intimate layers of the human experience,” depicts two young men standing in quiet poise on a tennis court, their gazes calm and deliberate. Kalejaiye’s restrained use of colour and stillness turns the scene into a meditation on youth, heritage, and aspiration. His figures, “caught in stillness, appear suspended between the tangible and the intangible - moments where thought, silence, and emotion converge.” What resonated most was his ability to make simplicity impactful. The work carries the dignity of everyday life, rendered with grace and precision, and evokes both nostalgia and possibility - a timeless image of reflection and resolve.
"Just The Two of Us" (2025) by Ife Kalejaiye
Another work that drew me in completely was Ozioma Onuzulike’s Royal Kente Weave VI (AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris). At first glance, it appears as a vast tapestry shimmering with organic texture, but on closer inspection it reveals itself to be composed of thousands of handmade ceramic and palm kernel shell beads - 4,422, to be exact. Each bead, glazed and fired from earthenware and stoneware clays, is connected by copper wire into a rhythmic lattice that recalls the intricate structure of Ghanaian Kente cloth. Onuzulike transforms humble, traditional materials into a contemporary symbol of resilience and renewal. The work’s physical weight is balanced by its lightness of movement, the hanging strands casting delicate shadows that animate with every shift of air. It feels both ancient and modern, ceremonial and ecological — a tactile dialogue between craft, memory, and identity. Standing before it, you sense both the labour of the hand and the meditative repetition of making, a quiet tribute to African artistry’s depth and endurance.
Ozioma Onuzulike’s "Royal Kente Weave VI" (AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris)
Equally powerful was Zenaéca Singh’s series exploring the legacy of the sugar economy in South Africa, painted with molasses on embroidered fabric. Her work transforms a material of exploitation into one of remembrance. The result is tactile, intimate, and politically charged - proof that material can hold memory.
These works reminded me why fairs like 1-54 matter beyond the marketplace. They create an ecosystem of visibility - a space where artists across Africa and the diaspora are not simply exhibited but understood on their own terms. As Touria El Glaoui, the fair’s founder, explained, “Every edition we do, it’s about how do we give more visibility to artists? How do we include them in institutions? How do we get them into the biggest collectors’ collections?” Her words reflect the fair’s central purpose: to shift how the world interacts with African art.
Despite global market slowdowns, this year’s edition carried a grounded optimism. Gallery owners spoke of resilience and maturity rather than volatility. Frank Schönau of THK Gallery observed that “1-54 has been instrumental in shifting the global perception of African contemporary art from being a niche focus to an integrated part of the international conversation.” That observation rang true. The fair’s confidence comes not from hype, but from a growing recognition that these artists are setting new standards of excellence.
"With stony hearts or with a wound" byLeasho Johnson
By the time I left Somerset House, it felt clear that 1-54’s influence reaches far beyond its walls. The fair has become a living archive of contemporary African creativity - a reminder that art from the continent is not defined by geography, but by its ability to transform experience into vision. From the grandeur of Earthworks to the intimacy of The Departure, each work carried a sense of urgency, a quiet insistence that to look at these images is to look at ourselves.
As someone who works with artists from similar contexts, 1-54 feels less like an event and more like a mirror. It reflects the resilience, experimentation, and integrity that make African art so vital today. In a global art world often defined by spectacle, this fair remains something rarer - a space of substance. It proves that contemporary African art does not need to compete for attention; it simply commands it.