Anna Brady: The Art Newspaper
“This is the Golden Age of contemporary African art. This is our renaissance. Within ten years we will look back in shock and awe at what we’re trying to achieve now because I think it’s going to change radically.”
So says Dolly Kola-Balogun of the young Nigerian gallery Retro Africa at the second edition of the 1-54 Contemporary Art Fair in Marrakech (until 24 February). Kola-Balogun, who co-founded the gallery in 2015, is a first-time exhibitor. “I appreciate fairs like this because they allow us to focus on the work coming out of Africa, on an international level,” she says, as the director of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in the US quietly hands her his business card.
There are a huge number of French speaking visitors at 1-54 Marrakech—many white but a number from across North Africa—and it does feel a little like African art for a European audience, enjoying some winter sun in the idyllic surroundings of the idyllic La Mamounia hotel. …Read More
Pictured: Fiat by the Nigerian photographer Uche Okpa-Iroha Courtesy of Retro Africa and the artist
