While the fair 1-54 gave a stage to contemporary African art, works by other black artists were on display in several other locations in London.
An Ode to Afrosurrealism
“We use Afrosurrealism as a visual framework, drawing on mythology and symbolism, as well as our personal experiences as artists, to present new ways to imagine spiritual identity.”
Hamed Maiye and Adama Jalloh about their show An Ode to Afrosurrealism
Thebe Phetogo
Engaging with the historical economies of racist imagery through citation and repetition, his art shows how “visual referents circulating in different geographic and exhibitionary context generate their own image worlds,” countering the commodification or invisibility of black bodies.
Jean-Christophe Maur on Thebe Phetogo
Blackbody Composite siren, 2020, courtesy Kó and the artist
Zanele Muholi’s Latest Paintings
With washy and matte strokes, Muholi portrays herself in allusive physical forms, referencing both Zulu legends and gender disidentification imagery. Still, it is the striking presence, involving an unretractable gaze that infiltrates the viewers’ attention, and which is intrusively compelling.
Enos Nyamor on the paintings of Zanele Muholi
Zibuyile, 2021
Kresiah Mukwazhi: Strapped with Power
The exhibition discoursed the theme of powerlessness through the stories of a sex worker who became a prophetess, Madzimai Catherine in the Nyenyedzi Nomwe Apostolic Church. Mukwazhi sought to subvert the traditional power relations imposed on women’s bodies by patriarchal structures.
Themba Tsotsi on the Zimbabwean artist Kresiah Mukwazhi
Chakatanga ndicho chakachenjedza, 2021, detail.
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November edition, 2021
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