1-54 ART FAIR LONDON
For the upcoming edition of 1-54 London, Galerie Revel is thrilled to present Tell Me the Colors of Your Memories, a multidisciplinary exhibition showcasing the works of Mariana Rocha (Brazil), Diambe (Brazil), Xanthe Somers (Zimbabwe), and Kwaku Osei Owusu Achim (Ghana) . Unveiling new series and, for many of these artists, marking their debut exhibition in a London context, Tell Me the Colors of Your Memories emphasizes its focus on the richness of colors and their role in shaping memories. The exhibition's title directly echoes Les couleurs de nos souvenirs (2010), a poetic essay written by the French historian Michel Pastoureau, which delves into the significance of each hue across time, geographies, cultures, and traditions. Many questions posed by Pastoureau serve as a thread running throughout the curatorial proposal: What traces do the colors of our childhood leave behind? How does color embed itself within our memories and experiences? What colors is the past made of? Inspired by Pastoureau's inquiries, the exhibition strives to become a vibrant chronicle of the personal and intimate, as each artist shares glimpses of their past through childhood recollections, daytime rêveries, contemplative musings, or fragments of family archives—all intertwined with the enduring presence of color as a vessel for memories.
Born in 1988 and holding a Master’s degree in Visual Arts from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Mariana Rocha is a painter of the depths of the sea. Fascinated by the organic connections between our bodies and the creatures of the ocean – with the octopus being her primary source of inspiration – Rocha transforms her works into intricate and abstract visual poetry of the marine fauna and flora. Her paintings also carry the historical weight of the waters: as Paul Gilroy demonstrated with the concept of the “Black Atlantic,” the ocean is a dense space where histories, cultures, languages, ideas, and cultural productions intersect. As the artist explains, the visual spaces she creates are dives “in the same salty waters where thousands of forced crossings of people from the African continent were made; in the dark waters where the mysteries of life and death dwell; that keep and dilute the memories engraved by these bodies in stones, shells, sediments, mud.” Her works thus evoke memories buried in the abyss, where each shade tells a story of our shared past and the organic connections between human and ocean.
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1993, Diambe da Silva is a non-binary visual artist living and working in São Paulo. Exploring the collective memory of the Brazilian Black diaspora, their body of work transcends traditional boundaries, encompassing organic materials, often incorporating fabrics, African culinary traditions, engravings, and choreographies. Within Diambe’s body of work, past and present recollections serve as both muse and medium: the recipient of the 2022 PIPA Prize fills visual spaces with elements drawn from diasporic experiences. The artist explores the full potential of their palette with bold blocks of color that hint at their canvas, a chromatic non finito that lends their works the ethereal quality of a stolen thought or a dream. Their works now enrich the prestigious collections of Instituto Inhotim, São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), São Paulo Pinacoteca, Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Anápolis Museum of Plastic Arts, and Memória Lage.
Engaging vivid colors and challenging aesthetic expectations, Zimbabwe-born sculptor Xanthe Somers blithely explores the limits of ceramics. Holding a degree in Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy from the University of Cape Town, Somers is attuned to the colonial context that has marked her homeland. Drawing from personal memories, such as her eye-opening arrival in London at the age of 18, the artist delves into Zimbabwe’s history to address (post)colonial tensions and reminiscences. Drawing inspiration from age-old Zimbabwean traditions, Somers seamlessly integrates elements such as weaving, wax fabric, and granite stone into her vibrantly colored ceramic sculptures. These materials, juxtaposed with modern mediums and social commentary, serve as a poignant reflection on the complex interplay between past and present. With her studio now based in London, Somers remains committed to pushing the boundaries of her artistic mediums, creating new larger scale sculptures that we eagerly anticipate unveiling at the fair.
Born in 1991, Kwaku Osei Owusu Achim is a visual artist based in Accra. His paintings embody the ethereal essence of a dream: figures, at times surrealistically double-headed, seem to float in a misty atmosphere, all interconnected by mind and body. Infused with a spiritual dimension, Achim’s paintings serve as repositories of reflections on sign language and the invisible ties that bind people together. At the heart of these reflections lies a significant experience: while working as a medical assistant after graduating in Medical Data from Yeshua Institute of Technology, he offered art classes to children with autism. It marked an eye-opening moment for the artist, whose corpus has since been committed to amplifying marginalized voices. Achim's work has recently been featured in several exhibitions in Ghana, the UK, and France and has enriched numerous private collections. In 2021, he was a visiting fellow at the Noldor Residency in Accra.
