At 1-54 New York 2026, Afro-Brazilian art takes centre stage for the first time

For the first time, the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair includes a curated section focused on Afro-Brazilian art and artists. Titled, ‘1-54 Presents: Brazil Beyond Brazil’, the presentation debuts at this year’s edition of 1-54 New York (13-17 May 2026).

According to the organisers, the section draws on archival research, reinterprets modernist legacies, and interrogates the construction of national and art historical narratives, pushing back against the often narrow framing of Afro-Brazilian art. The section will feature artworks by Black Brazilian artists such as Ana Claudia Almeida, Rebeca Carapiá, Helô Sanvoy, Jaime Lauriano, Luana Vitra, Diego Mouro, No Martins, Rommulo Vieira Conceição, Mônica Ventura and Lidia Lisbôa, presented by leading Brazilian galleries including Almeida & Dale, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, Nara Roesler and Aura.

The work on view showcases the diversity of Afro-Brazilian art and highlights Black Brazilian history and art history, the complexity of Black Brazilian experiences, and the cultural links between Africa and Latin America. A former Portuguese colony, Brazil was a major destination of the transatlantic slave trade. It has the largest population of Black people outside Africa, with more than half of its population identifying as Black or of African heritage.

Brazilian curator, art historian and professor Igor Simões, who organised ‘1-54 Presents: Brazil Beyond Brazil’, tells Wallpaper* the idea came in part from noticing the absence of Black Brazilian artists in African diasporic art history. Another reason, he adds, is the fetishisation, exoticism and expectations of Afro-Brazilian art, especially as viewed through a global lens.

'I think it’s exciting for [Afro-Brazilian artists and art] to be centre stage rather than on the sidelines,' says Touria El Glaoui, the founding director of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair.

In late 2025, Glaoui, alongside about two dozen people, including ten US-based emerging Black collectors, travelled to São Paulo on a trip organised by 1-54 and ISE-DA (a New York-based art advisory fostering Black collectors, founded by Nigerian art advisor Adefolakunmi Adenugba in partnership with Latitude), a platform supporting Brazilian galleries abroad and Cutuca Projetos Culturais.

There, the team met with Simões, who helped curate meetings with Black Brazilian artists, art professionals, collectors, and cultural leaders, as well as visits to the studios of artists including Moisés Silva Patrício, galleries, institutions, residencies, collections, and art spaces, all focused on Afro-Brazilian art. There was also a guided tour of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, curated by the Cameroonian Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, which featured several artists from Africa and its diaspora, as well as some artists now featured in ‘1-54 Presents: Brazil Beyond Brazil’.

The decision to have the section at the 2026 edition of 1-54 New York was inspired by the visit to São Paulo and conversations with curator Simões, says Glaoui, aligning with 1-54 New York’s expanding focus on spotlighting art from the African diaspora, with dedicated Caribbean and African American sections in recent years. Those visits, tours and conversations brought to the fore the incredible and diverse work of Afro-Brazilian artists and the challenges they face, including insufficient visibility and support, compared to their counterparts.

The new section will be helpful in 'shifting the gaze to [Afro-Brazilian] creativity in Brazil that has often been ignored and not given the right visibility', says Glaoui, adding that it will showcase the exuberance of Afro-Brazilian artists and art, and also be useful for people who might not be knowledgeable about Black Brazilian history.

In addition to featuring in the curated Brazil section, São Paulo-based Aura is one of more than 20 galleries showing work at the wider 1-54 New York, which opens on 13 May at the Starrett-Lehigh Building. Aura makes its debut at the fair alongside galleries from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas, including Nassau-based The Current: Baha Mar Gallery & Art Center, New York-based Tanya Weddemire Gallery and Lagos-based Adegbola Gallery, which presents ‘To Carry My Cross’, a solo show of new work by London-based, Nigerian artist Aaron Kudi, who makes abstract paintings with acrylic, enamel paint, ink and liquid metal, glazed tarpaulin and cotton duck canvas.

Returning galleries include Geneva and Abidjan-based Filafriques, Paris- and Venice-based 193 Gallery, Johannesburg-based Kumalo Turpin, Lagos-based O'DA Art, Washington DC-based Gallery Article 15, Baltimore-based Galerie Myrtis and New York-based Kates-Ferri Projects, which presents a group show, ‘Mirrored Histories & Woven Futures’, with work by Damien Davis, Samuel Nnorom and Dana Robinson, who is inspired by 1970s Ebony magazines and explores themes including Black female identity through media such as printmaking, painting, collage and textiles.

The special projects for this edition include Black Forest, an installation by artist and assistant director of media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ekene Ijeoma. It seeks to address environmental disparities in Black communities through strategies such as tree planting. Black Forest Library features 40 books, 40 plants, 40 seeds and artworks. Black Forest School, billed as a travelling series of programmes and spaces focused on Black and non-white perspectives in nature, debuts at the fair.

Another special project is Entanglements by TM Arthouse, launched by Tout-Monde Art Foundation, which brings together Caribbean and Amazonian artists such as Nyugen Smith, Chantalea Commin, Tania L Balan-Gaubert, Ramses Serrano, Johan Amiemba, and Edouard Duval-Carrié, with works across embroidery, wood, metal, sculpture and photography examining entanglement as a historical and ongoing force shaping the region.

A third special project to look out for is Collective Practices of Refusal across the Black Atlantic, by TZ Production Company and Vilanismo, a collective of Black Brazilian male artists, which addresses the conditions under which Black life is made visible by exploring themes such as autonomy and self-representation.

1-54 New York 2026 runs between 13 and 17 May at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea

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