1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in Paris: Advisory Selections

Anuar Khalifi at The Third Line

Based between Spain and Morocco, Anuar Khalifi spent his thirties as a DJ before shifting into painting.

Over the last decade, Khalifi has centred his practice around vivid, playful portraits that disrupt the orientalist canon, bringing traditional symbology together with contemporary references. Commenting on identity as well as global consumer culture, his paintings are multifaceted.

'I like to believe that when people look at my work they see the meaning behind it rather than my identity; because while I am a proud Arab and Moroccan, I also identify as a Spanish Muslim, and I like to stand in the middle,' the artist has noted.

The Third Line have presented two solo exhibitions of the artist's work in recent years, including an online presentation last year along with a 2019 solo at their Dubai space.

Nú Barreto at Galerie Nathalie Obadia

Based in Paris since 1989, Guinea Bissau-born artist Nú Barreto graduated from the École Nationale des Métiers de l'Image des Gobelins in 1996.

Since then, his work has expanded into a multidisciplinary reflection on violence and collective memory.

Drawing has remained the artist's favourite medium since childhood, offering a cornerstone to his charged images, which count among their references the works of Lucian Freud, Willem de Kooning, and Paula Rego, and contain a satirical edge akin the oeuvre of William Kentridge.

Yaw Owusu at Gallery 1957

Yaw Owusu creates glittering reliefs from found objects, such as U.S. pennies and Ghana pesewas in this sculptural assemblage.

Now rendered practically obsolete, pesewa coins were issued in 2007 in Ghana in an attempt to curb inflation. Frequently engaging with individuals on the streets and at markets in Accra to find out how the country's economic policies are affecting them, Owusu ties social commentary into his seductive surfaces.

The artist's first solo exhibition in London opened at Gallery 1957 last year with much acclaim, marking an exciting start for this young artist, who graduated with a BA in Fine Arts in 2016 from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

Ana Silva at MAGNIN-A

Ana Silva's delicate textile works incorporate materials including wood, metal, canvas, fabric, and woven plastic as in the case of this piece.

Born in Calulo, Angola in 1969, the artist's practice is deeply influenced by her surroundings. 'I cannot separate my work from my experience in Angola, at a time when access to materials was difficult due to the war of independence and the civil war,' the artist has noted.

Female figures feature throughout her woven constellations, with the artist's recent exhibition at MAGNIN-A in 2021 bringing together 30 works looking at the 'passage' between her grandmother and daughter.

Adegboyega Adesina at The Breeder

Athens-based gallery The Breeder presents luscious portraits by artist Adegboyega Adesina in dialogue with those by Kenechukwu Victor at their booth.

Both artists are concerned with the storytelling opportunities offered by realist painting, with questions of power and identity wrapped in vibrant compositions.

Adesina's paintings carry a dreamlike quality, often enhanced by the presence of natural elements such as flowers, while this painting incorporates smokestacks into an otherwise idyllic scene.

Lady Skollie at Everard Read

South African feminist artist and activist Lady Skollie makes bold, colourful compositions in ink, watercolour, and crayon that traverse topics including pleasure, consent, violence, and abuse.

The artist has presented her work in an array of group and solo exhibitions in recent years, as well as The Children's Monologues—a theatre production directed by Danny Boyle at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2017, for which she contributed a visual backdrop along with Tschabalala Self and Abe Odedina.

In 2019, the artist installed a stand-out presentation at Eastside Projects in Birmingham, gathering expressive large-scale wall paintings across dark green walls that explored the Dop system—a colonial practice in which alcohol was given to farm workers instead of money, with disastrous effects.