Caribbean diaspora drives bold new markets

From 8 to 11 May 2025, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair will return to New York for its eleventh edition, celebrating ten years of presence in the city. This year’s fair will be held for the first time at The Halo, 28 Liberty Street, in the heart of Manhattan’s financial district. The new venue will provide a fresh and expansive backdrop for a fair that has become a cornerstone of New York’s cultural calendar each spring.

With around 30 exhibitors from Africa, Europe, the United States and the Caribbean, the fair will showcase work by over 70 artists working across a range of media, from painting and photography to sculpture, installation and digital forms. The 2025 edition is set to reaffirm 1-54’s distinct role in platforming contemporary African and diasporic art within an international context, attracting collectors, curators, museum professionals and a wide public audience.

This edition will also build on a curatorial direction introduced in 2023 with 1-54 Presents, a series of pop-up exhibitions launched by the fair. The inaugural show, Sparkling Islands, Another Postcard of the Caribbean, featured thirteen artists from across the region and its diaspora, challenging stereotypical portrayals of the Caribbean and offering a complex and diverse view of its contemporary art scene. Curated by the late Caryl Ivrisse Crochemar, the exhibition marked a pivotal step in expanding the fair’s focus and deepening its engagement with Caribbean perspectives. The 2025 Caribbean Spotlight will be developed in continuity with that initiative, paying tribute to Ivrisse-Crochemar’s vision while advancing the conversation it began.

As 1-54 celebrates a decade in New York, this upcoming edition will reaffirm the fair’s position not only as a commercial platform but as a site of exchange, research and cultural connection. The inclusion of Caribbean perspectives this year will offer a timely and important expansion of the fair’s mission, setting the stage for deeper, more layered conversations around identity, migration, resistance and representation within the global art world.

Fair overview 

The 2025 edition of 1-54 New York will feature around 30 exhibitors and over 70 artists from 17 countries across five continents. Presented for the first time at Halo, 28 Liberty Street, the fair will take place in a striking 30,000 square foot venue in Manhattan’s financial district, offering an expansive setting for its broad and international curatorial vision.

Eighteen galleries will be exhibiting in New York for the first time, including notable new participants such as TERN Gallery from the Bahamas and Kub’Art Gallery from the Democratic Republic of Congo, both marking important firsts in the fair’s history. The exhibitor list will reflect a wide international reach, with galleries based in cities including Tokyo, Lagos, Johannesburg, Geneva, Paris and across the United States. Participants will include AKKA Project from Venice, Dubai and Lugano, O’DA Art from Lagos, Fridman Gallery from New York, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski from Paris and New York, Jonathan Carver Moore from San Francisco and Gallery Article 15 from Washington DC. 

The diversity of geography and vision will underscore 1-54’s commitment to presenting a compelling cross-section of contemporary African art from both established and emerging spaces.

Several large-scale presentations and artist-led projects will add further depth to the 2025 edition. Gallery 1957 will present a powerful work by Yaw Owusu, composed entirely of US pennies, reimagining the American flag and prompting reflection on liberty, economy and national identity. Almine Rech will showcase FIGURES OF MIRACLE, a raffia-based installation by Joël Andrianomearisoa that explores memory, labour and tradition through material gesture and cultural symbolism.

Art Comes First will contribute Textile Language, a project tracing the legacy of African cotton and weaving traditions as sites of identity and resistance. FORGOTTEN LANDS will create the Afro-Caribbean Resource Library, a curated literary installation designed to encourage deeper engagement with Caribbean thought, history and creativity.

The fair will also honour the long-standing legacy of David Krut Projects, which has introduced South African artists to New York audiences for over 25 years. Kalashnikovv Gallery will pay tribute with a presentation of artists who have worked in the same Johannesburg workshop as William Kentridge, showcasing both established and emerging voices from the region.

Caribbean Spotlight

The 2025 edition of 1-54 New York will mark a meaningful continuation of the fair’s engagement with the Caribbean, following the launch of Sparkling Islands, Another Postcard of the Caribbean in 2023. Presented as part of the 1-54 Presents programme, the 2023 exhibition featured thirteen artists from across the region and its diaspora and challenged stereotypical representations of the Caribbean by foregrounding conceptual depth, political nuance and cultural specificity. Curated by the late Caryl Ivrisse Crochemar, Sparkling Islands laid the groundwork for a more sustained dialogue around Caribbean art within the fair’s global platform. The 2025 Caribbean Spotlight will be developed in continuity with that vision and will serve as a tribute to his curatorial legacy.

Curated by ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE, a collective based in the Caribbean Mid-Atlantic, the 2025 Caribbean Spotlight will bring together eight contemporary artists whose work explores themes of migration, memory and cultural hybridity. The presentation will reflect the collective’s hybrid approach, which combines exhibitions, e-commerce and community programming to increase visibility for underrepresented artists working across Caribbean, Afro-descendant, Indigenous and Latinx communities.

Galerie Loeve&Co will also contribute to this expanded narrative with a group presentation that includes a range of modern artists, among them Haitian painter Roland Dorcély. A pioneering figure in Caribbean modernism, Dorcély’s inclusion adds a historical layer to the presentation and opens up a conversation about his influence within broader modernist movements, including connections to African art histories. While the rest of the presentation focuses on French and African artists, the presence of Dorcély situates the work in a wider transatlantic dialogue, reinforcing the interlinked narratives at the heart of this year’s fair.

The Caribbean focus will be further enriched by FORGOTTEN LANDS, which will present the Afro-Caribbean Resource Library in the fair’s lounge. Featuring a curated collection of publications spanning poetry, fiction, political discourse and art criticism, the project will encourage deeper engagement with the literary and theoretical frameworks that shape Caribbean creative practices today.

Together, the Caribbean Spotlight, FORGOTTEN LANDS’ contribution, and Loeve&Co’s presentation will build on the foundation laid by Sparkling Islands and carry forward a more expansive and inclusive vision for 1-54. By foregrounding both contemporary and historical Caribbean voices and highlighting their intersections with African art histories, the fair will open up important new narratives and reaffirm its commitment to global artistic dialogue.

Expanding Horizons

The 2025 edition of 1-54 New York is set to be a strong and expansive moment in the fair’s ten-year journey in the city. Taking place at Halo, 28 Liberty Street, this year’s edition will make full use of its new setting in the financial district, offering a spacious and adaptable venue for gallery presentations, special projects and curated interventions. With around 30 exhibitors from 17 countries across five continents, including 18 showing in New York for the first time, the fair will reinforce its position as a key platform for galleries looking to reach new audiences and engage with collectors, curators and institutions in meaningful ways. 

It will continue to serve as a space for discovery and dialogue across the contemporary African and diasporic art landscape.

New additions to the programme, including the launch of the Caribbean Spotlight and the Afro-Caribbean Resource Library by FORGOTTEN LANDS, will bring additional context and curatorial depth. The presence of modern voices such as Roland Dorcély alongside younger contemporary artists will point to a growing interest in more layered, intergenerational narratives.

As 1-54 prepares to open its eleventh New York edition and celebrate a decade in the city, the fair remains focused on expanding its scope and deepening its mission. Each edition builds on what came before, reaffirming a commitment to championing contemporary African art in all its forms and creating meaningful connections across continents, generations and perspectives.