This Year's Standout Art Fairs
For art lovers during the pandemic, the lack of in-person art fairs proved difficult. While art can be enjoyed in multiple forms, nothing beats interacting with paintings, installations, or sculptures, and seeing them up close. Seeing an old favorite or discovering a budding artist ist in person often provides a deeper appreciation that could never be put into words.
Here are our picks of this year’s standout artfairs, where seasoned art collectors and passionate art enthusiasts come to appreciate cutting-edge works from today's top artists.
Lagos Biennal
The Lagos Biennial was founded in 2017 as a not-for-profit contemporary art platform under the Àkéte Art Foundation, which is a Lagos-based artist collective registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria. The biennial positions the city of Lagos – with its highly international purview – as its hub in supporting and promoting contemporary art through exhibitions, public programmes, publications, research, and residencies. Through these activities, the biennial privileges adventurous approaches to art making, presentation, and critical discourse – aspiring to broach complex social and political problems, cultivate new publics, and establish fresh modes of engagement within the city, as well as throughout the country and internationally.
The third edition of the Lagos Biennial opens a space for the critical analysis of the nation state as locus of political action and vector of belonging, allegiance and identity, linking this to the imperative to construct an operative notion of refuge that may offer alternate paths towards constructing sustainable communities.
Themed “Refuge”, the 2021 edition of the Lagos Biennial will be captured in a three edition publication of the Lagos Biennial which will also capture the last two editions and screened online in November.
Dates: November 2021
Frieze Art Fair
Frieze Art Fair takes place every October in Regent's Park, London, and features over 170 of the most exciting contemporary art galleries in the world and the most important contemporary art fair in London. Known to focus on living artists, art enthusiasts can expect dynamic works that attract both seasoned and new collectors.
Dates: 13th - 17th October 2021
ART basel miami
One of the most famous and prestigious art fairs in the world, the American Art Basel of Miami, gathers galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia in a 4-day show at Miami Beach Convention Center.
Here, over 200 of the world’s leading international modern and contemporary art galleries display artworks by over 4,000 artists, including paintings, sculptures, installations, photography, film, video, and digital art. At Art Basel, Miami can be found significant work from the masters of modern and contemporary art, as well as the new generation of emerging stars. From editioned pieces by young artists to museum-caliber masterpieces. Art Basel Miami will be, as usual, the main appointment of the Miami Art Week.
Dates: 2nd - 4th December 2021
ART X Lagos
This year, ART X’ fair’s curatorial theme “the restful ones are not yet born” presents an opportunity to challenge projected images and clichés about the continent with reinvented modalities of our own presence in the world. By taking inspiration from archives of the past and experiences in the present, the fair’s special projects and speakers at ART X Talks aims to share ideas that contribute to creating a more collective and diverse possibility for the future.
ART X Live! will combine the best of last year’s performance film with an intimate music showcase, with its artists being invited to think about the various ways in which their work has been subjected to a combination of influences, as they subvert Western art forms and make them their own.
Up to 30 galleries will be showing over 110 artists from 25 countries in Africa and the diaspora.
Dates: 4th - 7th November 2021
1-54 LONDON
The ninth edition of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House will take place from 14 to 17 October 2021 and will feature work from 48 leading international galleries from 23 countries across Europe, Africa and North America. Among the exhibitors this year are 20 galleries from Africa, a record number of galleries from the continent, and of the 48 exhibitors, 14 galleries will be welcomed to the London fair for the first time. Nigerian exhibitors include DADA Gallery, SMO Contemporary Art and Retro Africa.
The fair will be accompanied by 1-54 Forum, an extensive programme of artist talks, panels, screenings, performances and readings that will be curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif, Director of Collections and Senior Curator at Sharjah Art Foundation, and will take place both online and at Somerset House. Entitled Continental Drift, 1-54 Forum will gather artists and audiences; mediators and narrators, to collectively delve into themes of legacy, philanthropy, and digitality. Exploring this interstitial moment in history, 1-54 Forum explores the concept of the drift as a moment for gradual reflection.
Additionally, as part of the programme of 1-54 Special Projects, the fair will once again be partnering with Christie’s to present an exhibition at the Duke Street space curated by art historian and art critic Christine Eyene. The fair will hold in London for it’s ninth edition at Somerset House.
Dates: 14th - 17th October 2021
Which exhbition are you looking forward to visit?