The 1897

Recap — Abu Dhabi Art 🇦🇪🤍 It was such a pleasure sharing our presentation ‘Under One Sky’ featuring works by Joseph Aina and Samuel Nnorom, and contributing to the spotlight on Nigerian art at this year’s fair. Thank you to everyone who took the time to engage, ask questions, and spend time with us in the booth — it was a privilege to connect and share their practices in this context 🙏🏾 The fair has closed, but enquiries and catalogue requests are still welcome via [email protected]. We’re always happy to continue the conversation! #AbuDhabiArt2025 #The1897Gallery #JosephAina #SamuelNnorom #AfricanArt ContemporaryAfricanArt ManaratAlSaadiyat

At The 1897, there are two sides to our story. Through our connected arms—The 1897 Advisory and The 1897 Gallery—we create pathways that link people, places, and histories across Africa and its diaspora. ⚫️ The 1897 Advisory supports collectors, institutions, and new voices navigating African and diasporic art. ⚫️ The 1897 Gallery is a nomadic curatorial platform that serves as a home for artists and their stories. Whether you collect, create, or are simply curious, you’re welcome here. 🔗 Find more info on our website, join our mailing list, or book an advisory consultation via the link in our bio. #The1897 #AfricanArt #ArtAdvisory #ArtGallery #ContemporaryArt #DiasporaArt

A R T F O R U M We are delighted to share that our group exhibition ‘The Alchemy of Colour and Matter’ has been featured in ARTFORUM as a Critics’ Pick. Thank you to @ayodejirotinwa for attending our opening and for a fabulous write up on our show. Read the full article on artforum.com or our website (link in bio)💫 ‘The Alchemy of Colour and Matter’ currently on view at ADA contemporary art gallery. @artforum @_the1897 @ada_accra #alchemyofcolourandmatter #adacontemporaryartgallery #arabaopoku #mimiaduserwaah #nachainkuareindorf #roisinjones #sikaamakye #tiztaberhanu #africa #ghana #ethiopia #uk #contemporaryafricanart #africanart #sculpture #painting #textileart #mixedmedia #artghana #accra #exhibition #artgallery #blackartists #womenartists #materiality #artcuration #alchemy #artnews

Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026. Thank you to everyone who visited our booth, engaged with the works, and supported our artists. Through To Be Held, To Be Seen, we presented the practices of Yanma Fofana (French/Ivorian), Roisin Jones (British/Jamaican), and Afeez Onakoya (Nigerian) — three distinct voices from across the diaspora, shown together in Cape Town. As The 1897 continues to expand its presence on the African continent, this presentation reflects our core mission: to connect Africa, its diaspora, and the world through thoughtful, curated presentations. We’re grateful for our growing community of collectors and partners across cities and continents. #The1897 #ICTAF2026 #ToBeHeldToBeSeen #ContemporaryAfricanArt

Installation Views | Booth L7 ‘To Be Held, To Be Seen’ is now on view at Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026, marking The 1897 Gallery’s inaugural presentation at the fair. It has been a pleasure welcoming our VIPs to the booth today, and we look forward to hosting all guests throughout the weekend in the Lookout Section. 📍 Lookout Section, Booth L7 🗓 VIP Preview: 19 February 🗓 Public Days: 20–22 February 📌 Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town #The1897Gallery #InvestecCapeTownArtFair #ICTAF2026 #CapeTownArt #AfricanContemporaryArt BlackDiasporaArt ContemporaryArt CuratedByThe1897

3 days to go ❗️ ‘To Be Held, To Be Seen’ opens at Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026 this week, marking The 1897 Gallery’s inaugural presentation at the fair. Bringing together works by Afeez Onakoya, Roisin Jones, and Yanma Fofana, the presentation unfolds through gesture, movement, memory, and care. Across drawing, relief sculpture, and painting, intimacy is positioned not as sentiment, but as practice. We look forward to welcoming you in Cape Town. 📍 Lookout Section, Booth L7 🗓 20–22 February 2026 📌 Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town #The1897Gallery #InvestecCapeTownArtFair #ICTAF2026 #ContemporaryArt

YANMA FOFANA Le mariage (2023) Oil on canvas 160 × 130 cm (63 × 51.2 in.) In Le mariage, Yanma Fofana depicts a scene from her sister’s traditional wedding ceremony. At the centre of the composition, an aunt washes the bride’s hands, a quiet and intimate gesture that becomes the emotional anchor of the work. Set against a deep, nocturnal violet ground, the figures appear suspended between memory and presence. Rather than focusing on celebration, the painting turns toward transmission, ritual, and the tenderness of familial care. The contrast between the white dress and the surrounding bodies creates a hushed atmosphere, where intimacy feels both monumental and fleeting. Presented as part of To Be Held, To Be Seen. 📍 Lookout Section, Booth L7 🗓 20–22 February 2026 📌 Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town #The1897Gallery #InvestecCapeTownArtFair #ICTAF2026 #YanmaFofana #ContemporaryArt

Yanma Fofana at @investeccapetownartfair Born in Paris in 1999 and based in France, Yanma Fofana is a painter whose practice is rooted in family memory, domestic ritual, and self-portraiture. Drawing from personal archives and lived experience, her work explores how memory is preserved, altered, and gently withdrawn over time. Through layered surfaces, erasure, and deep chromatic fields, Fofana’s figures emerge and dissolve within interior spaces shaped by memory rather than fixed time. Gestures of washing, bathing, and reflection become sites of intimacy and transmission, where presence and absence coexist and identity remains fluid, fragile, and quietly held. 📍 Lookout Section, Booth L7 🗓 20–22 February 2026 📌 Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town #The1897Gallery #InvestecCapeTownArtFair #ICTAF2026 #yanmafofana #ContemporaryArt

ROISIN JONES I Will Hold You Lightly, 2026 Selenite (Gypsum) with Stainless Steel Frame Unframed: 7.88 x 3.94 in. | 20 x 10 cm Framed: 15.35 x 4.13 in. | 39 x 10.5 cm We’re proud to present this new work by Roisin Jones at Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026. I will hold you lightly is informed by the Japanese concept of mono no aware—an awareness of impermanence, and the quiet emotional clarity that arises from it. It speaks to the tenderness that comes from loving something precisely because it will pass. Mono no aware is not despair, but intimacy with time. The sadness it carries is gentle, inseparable from gratitude. Beauty matters more because it is temporary. Rendered in selenite and framed in steel, the work illustrates that soft ache: the knowledge that something is fleeting, and therefore precious. Love here is light, playful, and transcendent. It isn’t diminished by impermanence, but deepened by it. 📍Lookout Section, Booth L7 🗓️20-22 February 206 📌 Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town #RoisinJones #InvestecCapeTownArtFair #ICTAF2026 #The1897Gallery #ContemporaryAfricanArt

Roisin Jones at @investeccapetownartfair Roisin Jones is a London-born interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, installation, performance, photography, and archival research. Rooted in her British-Caribbean heritage, her practice explores how the body and memory function as living archives, examining care, transformation, and belonging. Jones presents sculptural reliefs from her ongoing series Love Learns to Breathe, which explores Black love, self-love, and intimacy as radical acts of care. Inspired by the writings of bell hooks, love is framed not as sentiment but as methodology. Across the works, lighter registers of intimacy come into focus through gestures of holding, play, and quiet reverence, where seeing and being seen become acts of agency. 📍 Lookout Section, Booth L7 🗓 20–22 February 2026 📌 Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town #The1897Gallery #InvestecCapeTownArtFair #ICTAF2026 #RoisinJones #ContemporaryArt

AFEEZ ONAKOYA N’etiti ha abụọ II, 2026 Charcoal, acrylic and gold leaf on canvas 48 x 60 in. | 122 x 152.4 cm We’re proud to present this new work by Afeez Onakoya at Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026. N’etiti ha abụọ II (translated loosely as “between the two of them”) explores connection, how lives and energies meet, separate and move together in rhythm. Inspired by Yoruba proverbs and the language of traditional dance, Onakoya captures movement as conversation. Two bodies fold into one another, suspended in motion, limbs extending and curving in a shared flow. Rendered in charcoal and acrylic and illuminated with gold leaf, the work carries a quiet sense of reverence. The gold binds the figures, draping them in a shared presence that feels both tender and powerful. Rooted in Yoruba cultural heritage, the piece reflects on intimacy and synchronicity, on two individuals inhabiting the same movement. 📍 Lookout Section, Booth L7 🗓 20–22 February 2026 📌 Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town #AfeezOnakoya #InvestecCapeTownArtFair #ICTAF2026 #The1897Gallery #ContemporaryAfricanArt

Afeez Onakoya at @investeccapetownartfair Born in Ogun State in 1997 and based in Lagos, Afeez Onakoya is a figurative artist working primarily with charcoal. His practice centres on the human body as a site of movement, rhythm, and collective presence, drawing from Yoruba cultural heritage, proverbs, and traditional dance. For To Be Held, To Be Seen, Onakoya presents a body of works exploring connection as a practiced and sustained act. Interlocked figures lean into one another in states of balance and reciprocity, where movement becomes conversation and difference turns into harmony. Across the works, connection is framed not as static closeness, but as something enacted through rhythm, proximity, and shared presence. 📍 Lookout Section, Booth L7 🗓 20–22 February 2026 📌 Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town #The1897Gallery #InvestecCapeTownArtFair #ICTAF2026 #AfeezOnakoya #ContemporaryArt