Whitechapel Gallery has made its first institutional appearance at the 1-54 contemporary African art fair, presenting artist editions whose proceeds support its Errantry Fund for artists from the Global South and diaspora. The move places a London public gallery’s fundraising work within a fair devoted to African and diaspora art, rather than limiting its presence to the gallery’s own programme.
Editions connect the fair to a longer-term fund
The presentation includes editions by Joy Labinjo, Veronica Ryan, Virginia Chihota, Joy Gregory and William Kentridge. The fair runs at Somerset House from 15 to 18 October. The editions are not simply an accompanying display: their sales support a fund intended to strengthen the visibility and opportunities available to artists whose work has been neglected or under-represented in mainstream art institutions.
Whitechapel describes the Errantry Fund as supporting artists of the Global South and diaspora through exhibitions, publications, public programmes and dedicated awards. That remit gives the fair presentation a practical purpose beyond bringing additional works before collectors. Money raised through the editions contributes to a wider institutional programme, although no sales total or fundraising target has been announced.
The fund takes its name from the writing of Édouard Glissant, the Martinican poet and philosopher. Its stated approach draws on ideas of movement, multiplicity and relation, rather than treating cultural identity as fixed. The gallery says the fund is designed to address gaps in representation, support research and commissioning, and help build audiences for artists whose work has not received consistent institutional or commercial backing.
A first institutional presence at the fair
The gallery’s participation is distinct from the commercial galleries and artist-led projects that form much of the fair. An institutional stand can make a different case to visitors: it connects individual editions with the longer work of collecting, commissioning, publishing and presenting art. The first-time appearance also gives the gallery a platform to explain how philanthropy can shape what audiences encounter in its exhibitions and public programmes.
The selection brings together artists with different practices and careers. Labinjo’s work engages with family photographs and representations of Black British life; Ryan, who was born in Plymouth to Caribbean parents, works across sculpture and other media; Chihota’s practice draws on personal and cultural experience in Zimbabwe and beyond. Gregory’s photography and print-based work has explored histories, identity and representation, while Kentridge is known for work spanning drawing, film, theatre and printmaking. The group illustrates the breadth of the editions programme rather than a single style or generation.
For visitors, an edition can offer a more accessible route into collecting than a unique work, while still carrying an artist’s considered involvement. Here the purchase also has a philanthropic dimension: proceeds are directed towards the fund’s stated aims. The gallery has not published prices or an account of how much the fair’s edition sales have raised, so the scale of that contribution remains unknown.
Representation as institutional work
The fund’s focus reflects a continuing debate about who is represented in museum collections, exhibitions and art histories. Whitechapel’s stated programme includes major exhibitions, new writing and scholarship, partnerships that can take shows to other institutions, and support for emerging artists. These activities require more than a single fair appearance; the editions are one fundraising channel within a broader commitment.
The gallery also frames the work as a response to the limited commercial support available to some artists. It says the fund can help provide curatorial research and conservation care, and encourage wider institutional and commercial attention. Those are aims rather than guaranteed outcomes, but they indicate how the fund intends to connect visibility with the resources needed to sustain artistic practice.
By appearing at 1-54 for the first time, Whitechapel brings that institutional argument into a setting where artists, galleries and audiences are already engaging with African and diaspora art. The immediate offer is a selection of editions; the longer-term proposition is that sales and donor support can help broaden whose work is commissioned, exhibited and preserved.
