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René Tavares
René Tavares’s work is based on a process of research that utilises archives, photographs and literature to bring to the fore themes related to historical and socio-political issues faced by people in different African countries. With a preference for painting and drawing, Tavares’s artistic practice is varied as it also includes photography, video, and performance. His work evolves and expands, taking the form of projects and series which develop over time, reflecting his own experiences of transition between different artistic languages, African and European continents, between insular and continental Africa, the local and the global, and between the individual and the collective. By questioning assimilated, neglected, and forgotten heritages, and challenging the rigidity of categories and prejudices, Tavares’ works are produced in an impulsive and engaged mode, with the hope of raising awareness and triggering processes of resilience and social empowerment.
René Tavares will present work with THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE at 1-54 London 2023.
The Evil Genius
Renowned Afropop and Banku music superstar Mr Eazi has launched a unique art and music collaboration with 15 artists from across Africa for his first studio album, coming later this year. New artworks created in response to each album track fuse music and art conveying intense emotion and will be featured in a multi-sensory exhibition experience. The artworks will be shown as part of 1-54 London 2023’s Special Projects programme at Somerset House in London from 12-15 October.
Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi documents and archives the lives and struggles of LGBTQI+ communities, Black South African woman-identifying workers, violence, and questions of identity, all through portraits, photographs, calligraphy, installations or more recently paintings and sculptures.
Muholi’s self-proclaimed mission is to “re-write a Black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in South Africa and beyond”. Creating a powerful and daring aesthetic with an incredible evocative force, Muholi frees themself from codes and rules to give audiences new canons and new models.
Zanele Muholi will present work with Galerie Carole Kvasnevski at 1-54 London 2023.
Samuel Fosso
Cameroonian photographer Samuel Fosso began his photography career at the age of thirteen as an assistant. Soon after, Fosso opened his first studio in Bangui. By day he provided services to clients in need of passport photographs, group portraits and wedding photography. Named Studio Photo Nationale, the business’s motto was: “You will be beautiful, elegant, delicate, and easy to recognise.” By night, however, Fosso began to develop a unique self-portraiture practice that is today recognised for its nuanced explorations of Black history and stories of colonialism on the African continent. Fosso is recipient of the 2023 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.
Samuel Fosso will present work with Christophe Person at 1-54 London 2023.
Raymond Fuyana
As a deaf person living in Africa and having to grow up navigating the challenges accompanying interpersonal interactions, Raymond Fuyana’s work references systems of meaning in his paintings that connect technology, place, the environment and fantasy. Fuyana relocated from Zimbabwe to Johannesburg as a child in order to attend St Vincent’s School for the Deaf, where he learned Sign Language. This formative experience has shaped Fuyana’s sense of place and experiences of displacement, connection and belonging, all themes that permeate his paintings. Fuyana trained as a printmaker at Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg, but is a self-taught painter. He exploits the liberatory potential of art through his fantastical, neo-surrealist oil paintings which are centred around envisioning his dream life.
Raymond Fuyana will exhibit with Guns & Rain gallery at 1-54 London 2023.
Looty
With renowned professor and archaeologist Monica Hana, LOOTY executed a daring “Digital Heist” at the British Museum, utilising cutting-edge LiDAR technology to record detailed scans of the Rosetta Stone (Hajar Rashid). These scans were then transported, both physically and digitally, to the town of Rashid, from where the Rosetta Stone was originally taken, using geo-located AR. One of the first digitally-repatriated artworks was returned to its physical location.
Our reconstruction of the stela, of which the Rosetta Stone was once a part, serves as a reimagination of the past and augmentation of the future. Through art and tech, we aim to change the narrative of how we view art and who gets to experience it.
Beyond art restoration; it delves deep into the philosophical question of globalised art access. In an increasingly interconnected world, not everybody has the privilege to view their own cultural heritage. This disparity has long persisted, especially for those from countries where artworks were taken.
Looty’s presentation is part of 1-54 London 2023’s Special Projects programme.
Agnes Waruguru
Agnes Waruguru treats painting as a site and process for exploring the materiality of objects and their capacity to act as markers of identity and carriers of personal histories. She works predominantly on cotton, using dyeing, pouring and spraying alongside brushwork. These painterly processes are combined with acts of making that she inherited from different women in her life. Beadwork, sewing, needlework, embroidery and knitting are all incorporated in her work and intimately connect aspects of her personal identity with traditions of women’s work.
Agnes Waruguru will exhibit with Circle Art Gallery at 1-54 London 2023.
Marcus Deusdedit
Marcus Deusdedit holds a degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). His creative practice revolves around exploring possibilities for updating architectural and design production, primarily through the aesthetic rearrangement of established codes. Deusdedit’s artistic pursuits are embodied in his authorial project titled Laboratório de Arquitetura Remixada (re-lab.xyz), which serves as a virtual space for studying and experimenting with aesthetics and politics, intersecting the fields of design, architecture, and visual arts. His talent was recognized through selection for the previous edition of the artistic residency programme Bolsa Pampulha, and he has recently been acknowledged by the SP-Arte editorial team as one of the noteworthy artists to watch in 2023.
Marcus Deusdedit will exhibit with Asfalto gallery at 1-54 London 2023.
Aïda Muluneh
Aïda Muluneh’s photography has been published widely, and can be found in permanent collections across the US, including those of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and the Museum of Biblical Art. She has won numerous awards and was the first black woman to co-curate the Nobel Peace Prize exhibition in 2019, returning as a commissioned artist for the prize the following year.
Aïda Muluneh will present work with Efie Gallery at 1-54 London 2023.
Find out more about the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London.
