Five Things to Look Forward to at the 2025 New York 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair

Months after this year’s Marrakech edition, all eyes turn to New York, where the fair will be hosted in Halo – at Manhattan’s iconic 28 Liberty Street – for the first time, a 30,000 square foot venue. The fair will spotlight a sprawling list of galleries and artists from Africa, Europe, the U.S., and more, along with captivating special projects.

“We’re eager to make our return to New York as we continue to grow our annual edition,” Touria El Glaoui, founding director of 1-54, said in a press release. “It’s been wonderful to see the positive response from our U.S. audience over the last decade, as well as a shared passion for expanding visibility for contemporary African art. We’re excited for visitors to see the incredible artwork and programming from this year’s gallerists and fair partners.”

Below, OkayAfrica spotlights five things to look forward to at 1-54 New York this year.

A typically diverse lineup of galleries and artists

As is now customary of 1-54, this year’s New York edition will feature 30 exhibiting galleries. Fifteen of those galleries will make their 1-54 fair debuts, while 18 will be showing in New York for the first time. The diverse selection of galleries is based across 17 countries and five continents, with exhibitors from everywhere, from Tokyo, Japan, and Lagos, Nigeria, to Geneva, Switzerland, and Johannesburg, South Africa.

The first exhibitor from the Democratic Republic of Congo

KUB’Art Gallery will be the first 1-54 fair exhibitor from the DR Congo. The Kinshasa-based gallery was founded in 2020 to showcase Congolese contemporary art and make the work of artists accessible to the international market. Its curatorial focus centers on heritage, identity, and preserving ancestral knowledge while challenging the erasure of indigenous narratives through painting, photography, and mixed media.

Gallery 1957’s special installation by Yaw Owusu

Ghanaian artist Yaw Owusu has consistently used his art as a form of political critique. His 2017 installation piece, Back to the Future, which coincided with Ghana’s 60th independence anniversary, was a portrait of the Ghanaian flag using pesewa coins, reflecting the country’s unyielding inflation and general economic situation.

At 1-54 New York, Owusu created an interpretation of the U.S. flag using American pennies to explore liberty as an American symbol and what that means with respect to current political and economic conditions.

The ‘Art Comes First’ special project

Art Comes First (ACF) is a global collective dedicated to preserving and reinterpreting African craftsmanship through contemporary fashion and design. “Textile Language,” its special project at 1-54 New York, delves into the ancient art of weaving, linking cotton cultivation in Sudan and indigo-dying techniques from Mali, to the legacy of a Black-owned cotton farm in Alabama, which has been operational since 1877. The project merges traditional techniques with modern designs as a medium of storytelling, heritage, and empowerment.

A special spotlight on Caribbean art

ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE, a hybrid collective of artists, designers, creatives, and galleries from the Caribbean Mid-Atlantic, curates this year’s 1-54 Caribbean Spotlight. Through thoughtfully curated group exhibitions, which combine culturally specific e-commerce with dynamic programming, the collective creates space for underrepresented creatives from Caribbean, LatinX, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities. ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE will be exhibiting works by 11 artists during its spotlight.