Ca’ del Duca 3052, Corte del Duca Sforza
San Marco, 30124, Venezia, Italy
Tue – Sat 10am – 6pm
As the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair returned to London’s Somerset House for its 13th edition, the fair continued to expand its influence as the leading platform for art from Africa and its diaspora. The fair’s name, which references the fifty-four countries that make up the African continent, reflects its commitment to showcasing a diversity of cultures, perspectives, and artistic approaches. This year’s roster of artists navigated the fault lines between visibility and erasure, activism and aesthetics.
With three editions a year – in Marrakesh, London, and New York – the 1-54 Art Fair leads the way in providing visibility to contemporary African art. Here are carefully selected artists for you to keep an eye on from the London edition, which took place October 16-19. Each offers a distinct lens on the contemporary moment, bridging the personal and the political, the local and the global, and reshaping how we experience art today.
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Beau Disundi Nzazi
Beau Disundi Nzazi (b. 1993) is a Congolese multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges African history and global economic narratives, with a particular focus on the legacy of codfish. Educated in Interior Architecture in Kinshasa and in fine arts in France and Belgium, Nzazi works across sculpture, drawing, installation, weaving, engraving, and silkscreen, often experimenting with local and unconventional materials—including the self-made “codfish cardboard”.
Represented by AKKA Project at the 1-54 in London, Nzazi’s practice traces the codfish’s journey from its introduction to the Kongo Kingdom by Portuguese traders to its central role in global trade and economic expansion. Using the codfish as both a tangible material and a metaphor, Nzazi investigates the intertwined histories of cultural exchange, economic imperatives, and the emergence of capitalism, highlighting how commodities shape societies and human experience.
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