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# A Full Guide to African Art Fairs and Festivals
- URL: https://www.marmaladecollective.com/a-full-guide-to-african-art-fairs-and-festivals/
- Published: 2026-10-25T11:15:03.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T16:07:22.000Z
- Description: From gallery booths in Lagos and Marrakech to public art in Accra and Kampala, these gatherings offer different ways to meet the continent’s artists and understand the worlds they are making.
- Author: Omotola Saba
- Tags: Guides

What does African art look like today? You’ll get a different answer depending on where you look, and the continent’s art fairs and festivals are good places to start. In Lagos, gallery exhibitions share a programme with film and live music. In Accra, murals and performances bring art onto the streets. In Bamako, photography opens conversations about how Africa is seen, and who gets to tell its stories.

These gatherings offer a way to discover artists, as well as the people and places supporting their work. Behind each programme are galleries, curators, independent organisations and communities creating opportunities for art to be made, discussed and experienced. Collectors come looking for their next purchase; others come to meet an artist, join a workshop or simply spend an afternoon seeing something new.

From ART X Lagos and 1-54 Marrakech to Chale Wote and Rencontres de Bamako, this guide explores the fairs, festivals and biennials bringing people together around contemporary African art: what makes each distinctive, what you can experience there, and why their work matters beyond the event itself.

## The Fairs: Where the Market Meets

Art fairs are, first and foremost, places where art is bought and sold. Galleries pay for booths, collectors fly in, and the week's sales shape an artist's next twelve months. But the best African fairs have learned to do more than trade. They commission, they theorise, they allow the general public to view these works in person, and they also throw a very good party.

### [ART X Lagos](https://www.artxlagos.com/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), Nigeria

> [ View this post on Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/p/DePRLJWCGOT/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading)
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> [A post shared by ART X Lagos (@artxlagos)](https://www.instagram.com/p/DePRLJWCGOT/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading)

If you are reading this in Lagos, you already know. Tokini Peterside-Schwebig founded ART X Lagos in 2016 as West Africa's first international art fair, and it has since hosted galleries and artists from more than 40 countries.

The fair turned ten in 2025 with an edition called 10X at the Federal Palace on Victoria Island. Its main section brought together twelve galleries, among them Gallery 1957 from Accra, Afriart from Kampala, Galerie MAM from Douala and Lagos stalwarts like kó, Nike Art Gallery, Yenwa and SMO Contemporary.

What makes ART X distinct is its refusal to stay in its lane. ART X Live puts visual art in conversation with Nigerian music. ART X Talks fills the afternoons with argument. The eleventh edition runs **5 to 8 November 2026**, and international art tours are already booked around it.

### [1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair: London, Marrakech, New York](https://www.1-54.com/?ref=marmaladecollective.com)

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Touria El Glaoui launched 1-54 at Somerset House in London in 2013\. Its name refers to the 54 countries of the continent, and it has since become the fair most international collectors associate with African art. It now runs three editions a year across three continents.

The London edition is timed to Frieze week, which is precisely the point. Its fourteenth edition ran from **15 to 18 October 2026** with 35 exhibitors. It marks a turn towards history: a new spotlight on Modernist artists from Africa and the diaspora, anchored by an exhibition titled *West Wind*, curated by Dr. Nancy Dantas.

1-54 Marrakech is the fair's continental home. Its seventh edition took place at La Mamounia from 5 to 8 February 2026, with more than 20 galleries from 12 countries and eight Moroccan galleries in the mix. The programme is split across the city into DaDa, MACAAL and El Badi Palace.

1-54 New York completes the triangle each May. The 2026 edition took place from 14 to 17 May at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea.

### [Investec Cape Town Art Fair, South Africa](https://www.investeccapetownartfair.co.za/?ref=marmaladecollective.com)

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By sheer scale, Cape Town is the continent's heavyweight. The 13th edition in February 2026 hosted 126 exhibitors from 34 cities, showed more than 490 artists, and welcomed 30,000 visitors.

The 2026 theme was *Listen*, and the fair took it seriously, with curated sections led by curators based in Barcelona, Amsterdam, Toronto and Cape Town, plus a debut photography prize. Its Unbound City programme carried the fair out to Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation. The next edition is set for **19 to 21 February 2027**.

### [AKAA (Also Known As Africa)](https://akaafair.com/en/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), France

> [ View this post on Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/p/DaAuGfSInrz/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading)
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> [A post shared by AKAA (@akaa\_fair)](https://www.instagram.com/p/DaAuGfSInrz/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading)

Founded in 2016 by Franco-Cameroonian gallerist Victoria Mann, AKAA is France's first fair dedicated to art and design from Africa and its diasporas. It sits inside Paris Art Week, alongside Art Basel Paris.

Its 11th edition runs **23 to 25 October 2026** at the Carreau du Temple, under artistic director Sitor Senghor. This year centres on works on paper, with a monumental suspended textile installation by Senegalese photographer Gabriel Dia drawn from his series *Mother's Heritage*.

### [RMB Latitudes Art Fair](https://www.latitudesartfair.com/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), South Africa

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Latitudes is the fair for people who are tired of white walls. Its fourth edition took place from 22 to 24 May 2026 across the terraced grounds of Shepstone Gardens in Johannesburg, under the theme *Oasis.*

Its Focus programme works inside a single country for months before bringing that scene to Johannesburg. The 2025 Botswana focus sold out. In 2026, the focus was Nigeria.

## The Biennales: Where the Ideas Live

If fairs are the marketplace, biennales are the conversation rooms. They are built around a question, posed by a curator and answered, argued with or ignored by dozens of artists across a city. They move slower and think harder.

### [Dak'Art, Senegal](https://biennialfoundation.org/biennials/dak%E2%80%99art-the-biennial-of-the-contemporary-african-art/?ref=marmaladecollective.com)

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> [A post shared by DakArtNews (@dakartnews)](https://www.instagram.com/p/Ddt84xAiN8L/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading)

Conceived in 1989 and first held in 1990, Dak’Art is the longest-running large-scale contemporary art event on the continent.

The 16th edition runs from **19 November to 19 December 2026**, after months of uncertainty about whether it would happen at all. It usually takes place in May and June; this year it follows the Youth Olympic Games that Dakar is hosting.

The artistic director is art historian and publisher Morad Montazami, and the theme is *(Anti)Fragility: Arts of Repair and Counter-Shock Strategies*. The idea is to treat cracks and wounds not as weakness but as material, which feels exactly right for a biennale that nearly did not happen.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is this edition's guest of honour. Go for the official exhibition, then stay for the OFF: the sprawling programme of independent shows across the city is where Dak'Art feels most alive.

### [Lubumbashi Biennale](https://biennialfoundation.org/biennials/lubumbashi-biennale/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), DR Congo

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In a mining city built on copper and cobalt, a collective of artists built one of the continent's most experimental biennales. It began in 2008 as Rencontres Picha, and its first edition gathered 15 artists. Photographer Sammy Baloji is among its founders.

The 9th edition opens in **October 2026**, curated by Sorana Munsya and Jermay Michael Gabriel. It draws on the personal library of the late Congolese philosopher V.Y. Mudimbe, which he donated to the University of Lubumbashi. It remains one of the only independently organised contemporary art biennales in sub-Saharan Africa

### [Lagos Biennial](https://lagos-biennial.org/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), Nigeria

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Founded in 2017 by artist Folakunle Oshun and organised by the artist-led Àkéte Art Foundation, the Lagos Biennial runs without government or large institutional funding. Its previous editions took over loaded sites: the Nigerian Railway Corporation compound, Independence House and Tafawa Balewa Square.

The fifth edition, *The Museum of Things Unseen*, opens on **17 October 2026** and runs to 18 December. Curators Furen Dai, Chinyere Obieze and Sam Hopkins are building a speculative museum out of works that collections around the world have rarely or never shown.

The bigger story is permanence. This edition inaugurates the Àkéte Collection, a museum of modern and contemporary art positioned as the continent's first public international collection of contemporary art.

### [Rencontres de Bamako](https://rencontresbamakophoto.org/en/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), Mali

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The African Biennale of Photography was started in 1994 by French photographer Françoise Huguier, and it has shaped how the world sees African photography. Its history is also a lesson in fragility. Unrest in Mali forced a four-year pause before the late Bisi Silva, founder of Lagos's Centre for Contemporary Art, directed its tenth edition, *Telling Time*, in 2015.

The 12th edition doubled its scale to 85 artists and collectives across 11 official venues. Bamako remains a reminder that some of the continent's most important platforms depend on peace, and on funding that too often comes from abroad.

### [Kampala Art Biennale, Uganda](https://kampalabiennale.org/?ref=marmaladecollective.com)

Alongside KLA ART, Kampala also has a biennale. The Kampala Art Biennale, led by gallerist Daudi Karungi of the Kampala Arts Trust, set out to integrate art made on the periphery of mainstream attention into the global conversation. Its 2016 edition, *Seven Hills*, spread across seven venues from the railway station to the National Theatre.

From 2018, curator Simon Njami reshaped it around a master and apprentice model, pairing invited international artists with young Ugandan artists in Kampala studios. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, the edition moved online as a 3D virtual exhibition.

### [Nairobi Arts Biennale](https://houseoffriendskenya.com/nairobi-arts-biennale?ref=marmaladecollective.com), Kenya

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Nairobi has long been a hub for East African art without a biennale of its own. That changes this month. The first Nairobi Arts Biennale, led by the Kibera Arts District, runs from **24 October to 8 November 2026**.

The city's longest-standing art event is more modest and more democratic. The Kenya Museum Society's Affordable Art Show held its 20th edition at the Nairobi National Museum in May 2026, with proceeds supporting heritage work. It has helped nurture collectives including Wajukuu Arts, Mukuru Arts Collective and the Kibera Arts District.

Nairobi's institutions are also on the world stage. The Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute, founded in 2020 by painter Michael Armitage, is part of the 2026 Venice Biennale.

## The Festivals: Where the Streets Take Over

Then there are the gatherings that never wanted a white wall in the first place. These festivals put art where people already are, and in doing so they reach audiences that fairs rarely do.

### [Chale Wote Street Art Festival,](https://www.instagram.com/chalewoteofficial/?hl=en&ref=marmaladecollective.com) Ghana

> [ View this post on Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/p/DcBfPfatJ4U/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading)
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It began in 2011 as a small community project in Jamestown, one of Accra's oldest neighbourhoods, and remains free and open to the public.

Co-founder Mantse Aryeequaye has framed Jamestown's residents as stakeholders, not just hosts. That idea runs through everything: murals painted on colonial-era walls, processions, performance and music spilling down High Street to Ussher Fort.

The 15th edition ran across Osu and Jamestown from 10 to 17 August 2026 under the theme *Carnival of the Black Sun*. The programme folded in the Gbagbasete Procession, the Shika Shika Art Fair for independent artists, a film salon and events tied to Homowo, the Ga harvest festival.

### [LagosPhoto Festival](https://www.lagosphotofestival.com/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), Nigeria

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Founded by Azu Nwagbogu and launched in 2010 by the African Artists' Foundation, it pairs exhibitions with large outdoor prints across the city to reclaim public space.

After cancelling its 2024 edition, the festival returned as a biennial in October 2025 with the theme *Incarceration*, exploring physical, psychological and societal forms of confinement. Its network now travels: a LagosPhoto exhibition is on view at Lakeside Arts in Nottingham until 10 January 2027.

### [Lagos Street Art Festival](https://lagosstreetartfestival.com/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), Nigeria

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Lagos Street Art Festival set out to have street art written into its cityscape, led by the established Nigerian graffiti artist Osa Okunkpolor, known as Osa Seven.

Its first edition, *Legendary Lagos: City of Dreams*, opened on 10 December 2025 for five days. Twelve artists, nine from Nigeria and three from abroad, painted large-scale murals across the city, with walls along Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue on Victoria Island among the most visible.

The point is who gets seen. Council member Karishma Daryani-Chugani has described it as a platform for muralists who rarely get recognition in formal art spaces and will hold from November 5 to 8, 2026.

### [KLA ART](https://2024.klaart.org/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), Uganda

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KLA ART is Kampala's longest-running contemporary art festival, founded in 2012 to take art out of galleries and private spaces and into public life. Eight Kampala institutions started it together, including 32° East, Afriart Gallery, Nommo Gallery and the Uganda Museum.

Its formats have always been inventive. The first edition turned 12 shipping containers into artworks placed around the city. In 2014, twenty boda bodas became mobile exhibitions, and Kampala's old railway station reopened to the public for the main show.

The fifth edition, *Care Instructions*, ran in August 2024 and asked artists to treat indigenous knowledge as a set of instructions for repairing the present.

### [Addis Foto Fest](https://addisfotofest.com/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), Ethiopia

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Founded in 2010 by photographer Aida Muluneh and produced by Desta for Africa, Addis Foto Fest is a week-long biennial of exhibitions, portfolio reviews, talks and screenings. It was the first international photography festival in East Africa.

The 2016 edition showed work by 126 photographers from 40 countries. Muluneh's stated aim was a global conversation about how images can give a more balanced picture of Africa. The festival has announced a new edition but has not yet set dates.

### [SUD – Salon Urbain de Douala](https://biennialfoundation.org/biennials/sud-salon-urbain-de-douala-cameroun/?ref=marmaladecollective.com), Cameroon

The Salon Urbain de Douala is less interested in giving artists a platform than in giving art a place in the daily lives of Douala's residents. It is a triennial of public art run since 2007 by Doual'art, the independent art centre founded in 1991 by Marilyn Douala Bell.

Editions have taken on water and the city, and Douala's constant metamorphosis. The result is a city with more than twenty permanent public artworks, almost all commissioned by the same organisation.

### [Lagos Gallery Weekend,](https://lagosgalleryweekend.com/?ref=marmaladecollective.com) Nigeria

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If you have lived in Lagos long enough, you have probably driven past a gallery without going in. Lagos Gallery Weekend exists to fix that. Presented by Art Report Africa and directed by [Sunshine Alaibe](https://www.marmaladecollective.com/sunshine-alaibe-is-turning-lagos-into-a-living-gallery/), it opens the city's galleries at once and runs guided bus routes between them with Chisco Transport.

The 2025 edition brought together 20 galleries and five cultural institutions under the theme *Discover Lagos Through Art*. The third edition, *Art for All*, ran from 4 to 8 March 2026 across Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki, Yaba, Ikeja and Lagos Island, and in 2027, it’ll run from the 17th to the 21st of March.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2023/06/pexels-gradienta-6984984.jpeg) 

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