Presented by ACEL Art Company, Africa Rising: Highlights from the Africa First Collection, by Serge Tiroche brings together 21 works by 16 contemporary African artists from the Africa First Collection, established by Israeli collector Serge Tiroche over the past decade.
Launched during the 2025 Frieze Seoul season, ACEL Art Company is a global art platform dedicated to exhibitions, networking, and advisory services, connecting international galleries, collectors, and cultural partners with Korea and the wider Asian art market.
The exhibition highlights the growing presence of contemporary African art within the global art scene. Through painting, textile, mixed media, collage, drawing, and printmaking, the participating artists explore themes such as memory, identity, migration, community, gender, healing, and colonial history.
Featured artists include Ephrem Solomon, whose works intersect social and political realities with personal narratives; Kutlo Mabua, whose pointillist portraits examine identity and belonging; and Option Nyahunzvi, whose layered compositions address memory, movement, and community.
Rather than presenting Africa as a distant or singular image, Africa Rising offers a layered view of contemporary African art as a vital, complex, and active part of our shared global present.