1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Returns to London
Founded in 2013 by Franco-Moroccan entrepreneur, Touria El Glaoui, 1-54 is the first and only international fair dedicated exclusively to contemporary African art. Named for the fifty-four countries that make up the continent, the fair now spans three annual editions in London, New York, and Marrakech. It has become a vital platform for celebrating Africa’s creative diversity and its global diaspora.
For its 13th London edition, coming to Somerset House from 16-19 October, 1-54 brings together over fifty international galleries from across thirteen countries, with a strong presence from the African continent and beyond. The fair’s dynamic programme includes gallery presentations, artist talks, panel discussions, and Special Projects, alongside a new Caribbean Spotlight.
As El Glaoui reflects, “Each edition we ask ourselves: what is necessary, what can be achieved, and how can it be different?” This ethos continues to shape 1-54 as a space for dialogue, innovation, and visibility that aims to connect artists, collectors, and audiences worldwide.
Among the many voices redefining contemporary African art, textiles play a particularly evocative role. Here are just some of the artists using textiles to weave a new narrative into this year’s fair:
Thandiwe Muriu
Thandiwe Muriu , Camo 20 , 2021 , Photography. Courtesy of the Artist and 193 Gallery .
Kenyan photographer Thandiwe Muriu celebrates her country’s textiles and traditions through vibrant, illusionistic portraits. Self-taught, she stages meticulously patterned scenes that blend fashion, fabric, and form. Her images explore female empowerment and identity, reimagining beauty standards and positioning textiles as expressions of cultural pride and individuality.
Malaika Temba
Malaika Temba, U Don’t Have to Call, Jacquard woven fabric, acrylic paint, 2023.
A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and now an Adjunct Professor there, Malaika Temba’s work draws from a life lived across the continents of Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and now New York. Her textiles are knit, woven, and silk-screened, embodying strength and tenderness. She explores resilience through soft yet unbreakable materials, honouring diasporic lineages of labour, care, and creativity.
Ozioma Onuzulike
Ozioma Onuzulike, Armour for Senator Natasha, 2025, Earthenware and stoneware clays, iron-oxide engobe, glazes and copper wires. Courtesy of the Artist and AFIKARIS.
Ceramic artist and poet Ozioma Onuzulike transforms clay into woven tapestries that echo textile traditions while addressing Africa’s socio-political realities. A professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, his works merge craftsmanship and commentary, using clay’s materiality to explore history, transformation, and the resilience of everyday life.
Hyacinthe Ouattara
Hyacinthe Ouattara , Biomorphisme et ancestralité (Biomorphism and Ancestrality) , 2023 , Ink and acrylic on canvas, fabric, balls and bobbins of wool, wool and cotton threads, knotted fabrics, stitching. Courtesy of the Artist and 193 Gallery.
Self-taught Burkinabé artist Hyacinthe Ouattara explores the body, memory, and transformation through dynamic textile sculptures and gestural paintings. His works, often suspended between balance and imbalance, reference organic forms and cellular structures as metaphors for human fragility and resilience. Textures, colours, and fibres converge to evoke the physical and emotional threads of existence.
Tuli Mekondjo
Tuli Mekondjo, Otse Aawambo, 2024, Mixed Media (Archival image on linen fabrics, rusted cotton fabric, wild silk fabric, cotton lace, cotton lace, white sorghum, red sorghum, sheer fabric). Courtesy of the Artist and Guns & Rain.
Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo, born in exile in Angola, interrogates her nation’s colonial past through layered, stitched, and painted works. Using archival photographs and burial-like techniques of concealment and revelation, she honours the forgotten - retracing histories of labour, migration, and struggle while reclaiming silenced narratives of resilience.
Godfried Donkor
Godfried Donkor, Financial Times dreams coat of arms IX, 2015, Mixed media embroidery on paper. Courtesy of the Artist and Gallery 1957.
Working between Accra and London, Ghanaian artist Godfried Donkor blends collage, gold leaf, and historical imagery to probe Africa’s complex ties with Europe and the Caribbean. His layered works trace themes of commerce, identity, and resistance, connecting boxing culture, the transatlantic slave trade, and Ghanaian symbolism into a visual dialogue across continents.
Aliaa Elgready
Aliaa Elgready, AG11, 2023, Embroidery on canvas, 120 x 130 cm. Courtesy of Gallery Misr.
Egyptian artist Aliaa Elgready moves fluidly between embroidery, installation, painting, and jewellery. Her patchwork-based works weave together fragments of image and history, forming visual maps that question human connection and social structures. By reinterpreting cartographic shapes and motifs, she transforms textiles into meditations on life’s complexity and continuity.
Princia Matungulu
Princia Matungulu, Kama manioca (Like Manioca), 2024, African wax print, polyester, glue and thread. Courtesy of Guns and Rain.
Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and now based in Johannesburg, Princia Matungulu draws on her experiences of migration and cultural hybridity. Her richly symbolic works revisit Congolese folktales known as Harishi—stories passed down orally and now at risk of fading—reviving them through bold visual narratives that preserve and reinterpret communal memory.
Sahlah Davids
Sahlah Davids, What Was Before Woodstock Boulevard, 2024, Mixed media assemblage. Courtesy of the Artist and THK Gallery.
Cape Town-based artist Sahlah Davids creates intricate textile-based works rooted in her Cape Muslim heritage. Drawing on domestic crafts and familial skills such as upholstery, embroidery, and needlework, she transforms tradition into narrative. Her practice reclaims the spiritual and political legacies of her ancestors, threading identity and history through cloth.
Samuel Nnorom
Samuel Nnorom , Always Showing Up, 2024, African wax print fabric. Courtesy of Affinity Gallery.
Nigerian artist Samuel Nnorom transforms discarded foam and Ankara fabric into sculptural constellations of colour and form. His tactile works blur distinctions between textile and sculpture, weaving reflections on identity, social mobility, and material culture. Each tied and knotted bubble captures stories of resourcefulness, creativity, and transformation.
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Further Information:
The 13th London edition of 1-54 comes to Somerset House from 16-19 October, 2025. Book your tickets HERE.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Thandiwe Muriu, IN FULL BLOOM, Photography, 2022. Jet Ink Print of FineArt RAG+ Matt 310g mounted on aluminium dibond in black pre-made float frame.
All other images as credited in photo captions.