Rewriting the Story From the Roots: 1-54 London Turns to Africa's Modernists
This week, the most important conversation in London's art calendar isn't happening at Frieze. It's happening across the Strand, at Somerset House.
The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair opens its 14th London edition today and runs October 15–18, 2026. It returns to the building where it all began in 2013, when founder Touria El Glaoui launched what became the first international fair devoted to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. Since then, 1-54 has grown into editions in Marrakech and New York.
A deliberate look backward
This year, 1-54 is doing something a contemporary fair rarely does: looking back. Organizers call it the fair's most significant evolution to date. Alongside contemporary work, the 2026 edition introduces a spotlight on Modernist artists from Africa and its diaspora, through curated booths and a dedicated exhibition, West Wind.
West Wind is curated by Dr. Nancy Dantas, a South African–Portuguese art historian and visual studies scholar. El Glaoui framed the move simply: placing modernists beside today's artists gives a fuller, more accurate account of African art.
As an art historian trained in Cape Town, I can't overstate why this matters. For decades, the global market treated contemporary African art as if it appeared from nowhere around 2000. The modernists — the painters, sculptors and teachers working through independence movements in Lagos, Dakar, Khartoum, Kampala and beyond — built the foundation. Bringing them into a commercial fair puts history and value in the same room.
What to expect
35 exhibitors from Lagos, Cairo, Cape Town, Geneva, London, Paris and beyond, across the East, West and South Wings and Terrace Rooms.
A monumental installation in the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court, a large-scale public commission in one of London's grandest courtyards.
A public program of talks and events running alongside the fair.
The bigger picture
1-54's turn toward history caps an extraordinary year for African art. Koyo Kouoh, whose "In Minor Keys" now fills Venice, curated the fair's FORUM talks program back in 2015 — a reminder of how connected this ecosystem is.
And the season isn't over. The 16th Dak'Art, the Dakar Biennale, opens on November 19 under artistic director Morad Montazami, with the theme "(Anti)Fragility: Arts of Repair and Counter-Shock Strategies." Venice closes on November 22. For three days, the two great biennales of the year will overlap — one built by a curator from Dakar, the other in Dakar itself.
If you go: 1-54 is open Thursday to Saturday, 11am–7pm, and Sunday, 11am–6pm. General tickets are £32 (£18 concessions).
Sources: Somerset House, USA Art News, Contemporary And, Biennale de Dakar, eye.on.art