Artnet News Pro The 1-54 African Art Fair Is a Keen Spot for Talent Scouting. Here Are 5 Artists Poised to Take Off From the New York Fair

The fair's first Harlem edition was full of buzz-worthy art.

Sarah Cascone, May 23, 2022

1-54 New York at Harlem Parish. Photo by Sarah Cascone.

In what felt like a long overdue move, the1-54 Contemporary African Art Fairtook place in Harlem this year with a line-up of 25 galleries, an impressive haul of contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora in tow.

"This is the first time in my memory that a major art show has come to Harlem," Dindga McCannon, who was born in Harlem in 1947 and has a booth dedicated to her work with New York's Fridman Gallery, told Artnet News at the VIP opening.

The fair's setting atHarlem Parish-an events venue originally built in 1907 as St. Thomas the Apostle, a neo-Gothic Catholic church-made the trip uptown somewhat of a pilgrimage, the art beneath the soaring vaulted ceilings vibrating with the collective spiritual energy of an entire continent.

After several hours spent perusing the aisles and chatting with artists, dealers, and collectors, here are five names from this year's fair whose careers seem poised to jump to the next level.

Dindga McCannon

Dindga McCannon with her work at 1-54 New York. Photo by Sarah Cascone.

Who:The 74-year-old Harlem native waited until 2021 to get her first solo show, at New York's Fridman Gallery. (A solo booth at Art Basel Miami Beach followed.) An alumni of New York's Art Students League, McCannon is an accomplished painter and illustrator, but she's best known for her richly textured and detailed textile based works, which she began making in part due to the visual variety afforded by different prints, but also because fabric was easier to store and transport, especially without a car.

Much of the work is inspired by McCannon's life experiences, particularly in Harlem, where she lived until about eight years ago. The 2009 mixed media quiltHarlem Memories #2, for instance, incorporates all manner of family photographs, documents, and other ephemera from McCannon's childhood, inherited from her mother.

The work may feel especially poignant in a historic Harlem venue, but "doing art inspired by Harlem is just part of my DNA," McCannon said.

Based in:Philadelphia

Showing at:Fridman Gallery, New York

Prices:New small-scale paintings from McCannon's "Harlem Women" series start at $10,000, while the oil paintingCouple #4(1971), recently restored by the gallery, was priced at $150,000-it was acquired by a public collection. Large-scale textile works range from $50,000 to $75,000.

Dindga McCannon, Couple #4 (1971). Courtesy of Fridman Gallery, New York.

Why You Should Pay Attention: The art world dismissed McCannon's textile work as craft for years, and she sustained herself by teaching and selling her quilts at street fairs. Gallery owner Iliya Fridman's interest was piqued after McCannon's oil paintingThe Last Farewell(1970), from the collection of theJohnson Publishing Company, fetched $161,000 on an estimate of just $40,000 in 2020.

A number of galleries came calling following the sale, but McCannon chose Fridman because the dealer was interested in promoting the full arc of her career, not just the '70s-era oils-"There's a very limited supply of those. Plus, I'm still working!" she said.

Notable Resume Line:Along with Kay Brown and Faith Ringgold, McCannon founded the artist collective "Where We At" Black Women Artists, Inc., in the 1970s, calling on museums to become more inclusive.

TheBrooklyn Museumacquired her paintingRevolutionary Sister(1971) in 2012 and included it in thecritically acclaimed 2017 show"We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-1985." Her work is also in the collection of the Studio Museum and the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, both in Harlem.

Up Next:Fridman is partnering with Pippi Holdsworth in London, which will host McCannon's first European solo show. And, in a fitting coda to her work with Where We At, one of McCannon's paintings from 1975 has been acquired by the Whitney.

"It's becoming part of the canon as it deserves," Fridman said.

Thandiwe Muriu

Thandiwe Muriu with a piece from her "Camo" series at 1-54 New York. Photo by Sarah Cascone.

Who:Born in 1990,Thandiwe Muriufirst picked up a camera at the age of 14, courtesy of her dad. Because there was no formal photography training in her native Kenya at the time, Muriu is self-taught. Today, her home doubles as a photography studio, where she shoots bold, fashion-photography influenced portraits of Kenyan women for her "Camo" series.

Each piece starts with an African textile, which Muriu buys in bulk, creating the pattern for her models' colorful clothing and the backdrops they blend into. As an homage to Kenyan resourcefulness, she also creates unique accessories from everyday objects, such as hot pink bottle cap earrings or glasses made from orange sink drain stoppers.

Based in:Nairobi, Kenya

Showing at:193 Gallery, Paris and Venice

Prices:Large-format prints are €12,000 ($12,650) in an edition of three, while smaller prints come in an edition of seven for €6,000 ($6,325).

Thandiwe Muriu, Camo 23 (2021). Photo courtesy of 193 Gallery, Paris and Venice.

Why You Should Pay Attention: Beth Rudin DeWoody snapped up the first edition ofCamo 23early on during the fair's VIP day. Within two hours, the other two had also sold, along with 10 other large-format works. Muriu also had institutional interest at the fair, with the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, buying one of her prints as well.

Notable Resume Line: Muriu's pieceCamo 34is installed as a public artwork forPHOTO 2022, a photography biennial in Melbourne, through May 22. She also has work in journalist and publicist Susanne von Meiss's Allure Collection and theUhoda Collection, both in Switzerland.

Up Next:193 Gallery, which has been working with Muriu for two years after discovering her on Instagram, will host her next solo show at its Venice location in the fall. And the artist is considering expanding her practice to create her own textiles to use in her photoshoots.

"That's something that I may evolve into, because it's all about the print-the story is in the print, the color is in the print, and the magic is in the print," Muriu said.

Johanna Mirabel

Johanna Mirabel, Cascade (2019). Courtesy of Galerie Véronique Rieffel, Côte d'Ivoire.

Who:Johanna Mirabel, born in 1991 in Guyana, is a graduate of Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. It was during her time there she caught the eye of gallerist Véronique Rieffel, who has since staged a solo presentation of the artist's large-scale figurative paintings at Galerie des Femmes in Paris.

"She uses the colors of that place [Guyana]," Rieffel said. "Red for the earth and green from nature. She likes to mix interiors and outdoor space, painting scenes of daily life, but with something coming in from the outside."

Based in:Paris

Showing at:Galerie Véronique Rieffel, Côte d'Ivoire

Prices:$13,500 to $18,000

Johanna Mirabel, Living Room (2022). Courtesy of Galerie Véronique Rieffel, Côte d'Ivoire.

Why You Should Pay Attention:The Museum of African Artin Marrakech and Fondation H in Madagascar (which isopening a space in Paris) have both acquired examples of Mirabel's work.

Notable Resume Line:Mirabel is the winner of 1-54's 2022Ritzau Art Prize. She is also qualified as an architect, "so she is very into the depiction of spaces and perspectives," Rieffel said.

Up Next:As the prize winner, Mirabel will spend three months in residence at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, which will likely culminate in an exhibition.

Roméo Mivekannin

Roméo Mivekannin, Récolte de piment pour la fabrication du tabasco, Louisiane c. 1884. (2021), "Strange Fruit" series. Photo courtesy of Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris.

Who:Roméo Mivekannin, age 35, is the great-great-grandson of King Behanzin, the last ruler of the kingdom of Dahomey, in what is now Benin. His work is deeply influenced both by that royal lineage and the legacy of colonialism in Africa.

Some works depict Behanzin and other historic Black political leaders from the African continent. His "Strange Fruits" series memorializes enslaved people, including portraits based on photographs commissioned by Harvard scientist Louis Agassiz in 1850 that return the dignity of the sitters, creating images imbued with pathos and humanity.

Mivekannin makes these works on old bed sheets that have been ritualistically washed in herbal elixer baths, traditionally used in voodoo ceremonies. After working for years in acrylic, he has recently begun painting with indigo.

"Indigo was the currency that was used to trade enslaved people," Eric Dupont, the artist's gallerist, explained to Artnet News.

Based in:Toulouse, France

Showing at:Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris

Prices:$12,000 to $52,000

Roméo Mivekannin, D'apres Joseph T.Zealy, daughter of Jack, Guinéa 1850, plantation of B.F Taylor (2021), "Strange Fruit" series. Photo courtesy of Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris.

Why You Should Pay Attention:Mivekannin is in theDakar Biennalethrough June 21, and the group show "Picasso Remix," on view at Galerie Le Manège at the French Institut of Dakar until June 30.

"He's so in demand. Every day we see solicitations from curators, from collectors…" Dupont said. "He will be very very famous-it's just a matter of time."

Notable Resume Line:Mivekannin's work was included in "Magies-Sorcelleries" at Muséum de Toulouse in 2020 and 2021 and in "Human Zoo: The Age of Colonial Exhibitions" at the Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, in 2021 and 2022.

Up Next: An architect by training, Mivekannin is currently busy pursuing a PhD in Montpellier, France. But he will have a 2023 appearance at theSharjah Biennial, which has already bought a piece from the "Strange Fruit" series.

David Uzochukwu

David Uzochukwu, Drown in My Magic: Stake Out (2019). Photo courtesy of Galerie No 8, Brussels.

Who:Still just 23 years old, Austrian Nigerian artist David Uzochukwu began taking photographs at the tender age of 10. Dealer Marie Gomis-Trezise discovered Uzochukwu online back in 2015, when she was first thinking about starting her gallery.

The photographs, shot in Senegal, draw on the language of both art and fashion, with Black men and women who appear to be hybrid creatures, at home in both land and sea, as if denizens of some new Atlantis.

"It's exploring the relationship between the diaspora and the ocean," Gomis-Trezise said. "He's created these merfolk, with all of these characters coming out of the sea."

Based in:Berlin

Showing at:Galerie No 8, Brussels

Prices:$3,200 to $8,450

David Uzochukwu, Drown in My Magic: Styx (2021). Photo courtesy of Galerie No 8, Brussels.

Why You Should Pay Attention:Uzochukwu was a finalist for the 2021 Prix Pictet for his 2019 self-portraitGhoul, alongside such heavy hitters as Sally Mann and Christian Marclay. This body of work is his first proper series. "He does a lot of work in post production," Gomis-Trezise said. "It takes hours and hours of work to do what he does."

Notable Resume Line:Uzochukwu is in the collection of theSaint-Louis Photography Museumin Saint-Louis, Senegal. His work has appeared in the traveling exhibition "The New Black Vanguard" and the African Biennale of Photography in Bamako, Mali.

Up Next:Gomis-Trezise has plans to open the gallery's first physical space, in Brussels, and host a solo show for the artist. She'll also present Uzochukwu's work at the upcoming edition of Paris Photo-all while he continues his studies in philosophy at Berlin's Humboldt University.

1-54 New York is on view at Harlem Parish, 258 West 118th Street, New York, May 19-22, 2022.


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Sarah Cascone Senior Writer

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artnet AG published this content on 23 May 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 23 May 2022 14:35:08 UTC.