Bklyn Sounds 5/16/2023 - 5/22/2023 + The Importance of Local at 1-54 Art Fair

A Contemporary African Art Fair for New York + Shows: Waajeed + Floorplan + Rimarkable / Underground System / Marta Sanchez / "I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records" / and more

This is one of those art-fair weekends in New York City, when the one-percenters of Frieze, plus a variety of art-world glitterati and hangers-on take over spaces throughout the city. The goings-on are plenty: There’s art-related specialty talks and events and screenings and cocktail parties - in fact, at least one of the below listings was likely scheduled to coincide with the influx of the art brood, and others probably incorporate music into their purview. (Including “Mutu X Music: Afrobeat, Hip Hop, Funk, and the Art of Wangechi Mutu,” a conversation with the Kenyan artist at the New Museum, site of her current retrospective. That roundtable will touch upon the 2003 New Museum exhibit “Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti” which featured Wangechi’s work - and for which I was a music co-curator, with my great friend and colleague Trevor Schoonmaker. I’ll be at that one. If you see me, say hello.)

Mous Lamrabat, "The girl with the cheesy earrings" (2022). 4 editions. Courtesy of Loft Art Gallery.

Mostly, the art industry largess is as dull to me as its music counterpart. But there is one mid-May art event that I look forward to attending every year, one that for nearloy a decade has been central to informing my “global localization” point of view. The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair was founded in 2013 to take advantage of the worldwide art boom (itself, the result of a rise in the 1%),  and to give representation to young and globally unknown artists from the African Diaspora. 1-54’s three annual editions take place in Marrakech (its founder is the Moroccan cultural entrepreneur Touria El Glaoui), London and New York, and show work represented by galleries all over the world. Prior to 1-54, there were already some places to regularly see great African artists in New York, including the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Jack Shainman Gallery, both of which have long been champions of young and under-appreciated artists of color from around the world. Yet the introduction of a space dedicated to new work, that represents local situations through a community lens — understanding that work personally, programming it more subtly, with a broad range of social, political and economic factors in mind — has introduced not only an additional commercial component to it, but a new, more grassroots audience for its ideas.

Saïdou Dicko, "Bubble in the Yacht TMS R Soleil," (2022). Painted photography, 90 x 120 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS.

It’s understandable if you are asking, “What does any of this have to do with music?” But read that last sentence again with Dada Strain’s community-building mission in mind. There is a direct correlation to understanding all creative, local-community culture. In many ways, engaging art and literature is not at all dissimilar to engaging music. They live next to each other, collaborate and inform one another, grow together, side by side. This is obvious when you visit 1-54. Music, or musical elements, are often the subjects of the art displayed here. Look into the biographies of the multidisciplinary artists exhibited, and you’ll find that many of them also play music. When the New York edition used to take place at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, the space’s sprawling back-yard would host musical performances by marching bands and DJs and electronic musicians, adding to the camaraderie. Music has always received egalitarian representation here, because it’s always been regarded as part of the ecosystem

Jamilla Okubo, "I do not come to you as a reality. I come to you as The Myth (Pentecost)," (2021). Acrylic on canvas, mixed media, 72 × 96 in. Courtesy of Mehari Sequar Gallery.

And like the best neighborhood music parties, admission to 1-54 has remained more reasonable than attending Frieze, or more exclusive events (or stadium tours). 1-54 may still be part of a global culture-capital industry, part of a systemic machine in which galleries are trying to sell art to “consumers” as “products.” Yet some community ethics have seemingly been instilled in the inner workings of this particular apparatus. There’s local DIY in this African Art Fair’s DNA, and if you look at it right, you just might walk away engaging ideas you’ve never contemplated before. Which is, I believe, how local culture is supposed to work.        

(All art images courtesy of 1-54.)     

(1-54 Presents Its Sixth Annual Fair of Contemporary African Art in New York, Fri 5/19 - Sun 5/21 @ Manhattanville Factory District 439 W 127th Street, Harlem - $20)

THIS WEEK’s OTHER SHOWS: