1-54 - London.

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair was founded in 2013 by Touria El Glaoui in London, its name drawing direct reference to the 54 countries that constitute the African continent, a declaration of scope that has only grown more accurate with time. Now in its thirteenth edition at Somerset House, running 16 to 19 October 2025, the fair has positioned itself as the leading international platform for contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, with annual editions spanning London, New York, and Marrakech. It arrives, as always, during Frieze week, and has long since stopped apologizing for the company it keeps.

The fair welcomes more than 50 international exhibitors from across 18 countries, presenting over 100 artists working across painting, sculpture, photography, performance, textiles, and mixed media, with a notably strong representation from Nigeria and South Africa. In the Somerset House courtyard, Portuguese-Angolan artist Monica de Miranda stages Earthworks, a site-specific botanical installation rooted in decolonial thought and Achille Mbembe's concept of terrestrial communities. The Forum 2025, curated by Dakar-based RAW Material Company and Koyo Kouoh, gathers artists, curators, and cultural thinkers around decoloniality and cross-generational exchange, while Christie's returns for its sixth consecutive year as partner, a detail that tells you everything you need to know about where the market's attention has quietly moved.

For ArtAtlas travelers, the VIP Preview on 15 October is the correct entry point: the fair is at its most candid before the public days add noise and foot traffic to what is, at its core, a conversation worth having. Two institutions nearby deserve your attention: the Serpentine Galleries in Kensington Gardens, whose programming consistently makes other institutions look overly cautious, and the Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House itself, which has the rare quality of making you feel genuinely educated rather than merely cultured. Whatever you think you know about the week's most important acquisition, know that the person who actually made it heard about it at dinner the night before.