1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Unveils Modern Spotlight for Its 14th London Edition
West Wind, curated by Dr. Nancy Dantas, complements this year’s gallery line-up in a fair built on depth and ambition. Fair dates: 15 – 18 October 2026
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair returns to Somerset House from 15 to 18 October 2026 for its 14th consecutive London edition and its most significant evolution to date. Alongside its contemporary programme, the fair introduces a spotlight devoted to Modernist artists from Africa and its diaspora, through curated booth presentations and a dedicated 1-54 Presents exhibition by South African-Portuguese art historian and visual studies scholar Dr. Nancy Dantas under the title West Wind.
The launch answers a wider surge of institutional attention towards African Modernism, as museums and scholars work to recover artists and movements long left on the periphery of the dominant art historical record.
Long-standing participant Loeve&Co (Paris, France) have regularly been highlighting Modern artists and will have a strong presence with Aubrey Williams, Twins Seven Seven, Guido Llinàs, Frédérique Devaux Yahi and Roland Dorcély. The Gallery of Everything (London, UK) will be presenting a solo show in tribute to Senegalese sculptor Seyni Awa Camara. ArtTalks | Kanafani Gallery brings a historical Egyptian lens, showing Modernist figures Tahia Halim, Inji Efflatoun, Zeinab Al-Saginy, Rabab Nemr and Gazbia Sirry, whose standing at home has never quite translated into international recognition.
Alongside the fair, 1-54 Presents will return with West Wind , a curated exhibition by art historian and researcher Dr. Nancy Dantas. Inspired by the 1966 song and epithet for African unity, the exhibition brings together the work of pioneering modern artists from across Africa. Further details will be unveiled in September.
“As we prepare for our 14th London edition, I have been reflecting on how differently we understand artists when we place them within the histories they helped to shape, rather than at their margins,” says Founding Director Touria El Glaoui. ” West Wind allows us to look back with greater precision and to see the present differently. By bringing these generations into conversation, this edition places African artists where they belong: as authors of modern and contemporary art history.”
This vision also becomes tangible in several booths built entirely around women artists. Geneva-based GALLERY BRULHART, Gillian Jason Gallery (London, UK), O’DA Art (Lagos, Nigeria), and Rome-based Galleria Anna Marra present all-female presentations, demonstrating the undeniable impact women have had on African art from the modern and post-modern periods until today.
Together, galleries and artists across Africa and its diaspora continue to make the case that African art today has no single centre, engaging from and with geographies far beyond the continent itself and shaping today’s global conversations. Nigerian textile artist Samuel Nnorom shows with Affinity Gallery from Lagos, and Moroccan painter Amina Rezki with Loft Art Gallery from Casablanca. British-Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist Godfried Donkor is presented by Accra and London-based Gallery 1957 . October Gallery presents a group show which includes Congolese painter Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga , Beninese sculptor Romuald Hazoumè , alongside 1-54 London debutant Yacout Hamdouch ; and Franco-Algerian artist Nasreddine Bennacer shows with Paris gallery AFIKARIS . Cairo-based Gallery Misr presents Egyptian painters Souad Abdelrasoul and Gamal Elkheshen and Eclectica Contemporary from Cape Town showcases Justin Dingwall, Ebenezer Samuel Akinola and Nedia Were.
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