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| Anna Katrina Zinkeisen, The Dark Lady, 1938, oil on canvas, Nottingham City Museum and Galleries |
As always the
London Art Fair is a mixed bag. Star of the show is the not-for-sale Art UK
exhibit where five art stalwarts; Sonia Boyce, Haroon Mirza, Oscar Murillo and
Rose Wylie, have each selected work from UK regional collections. This means
that an eclectic group of works, that I imagine have been stashed in cupboards
in small provincial museums, have their five minutes in the 2018 limelight.
Rose Wylie’s choices include Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid’s In Spinster’s Salt Collection. While Haroon
Mirza has used an algorithm to make his selection, thereby subverting the very
idea of the elitist notion of selecting itself, and has maybe turned up with my
favourite painting of the bunch, Anna Katrina Zinkeisen’s The Dark Lady.
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Lubaina Himid, In Spinster’s Salt Collection, 1989,
New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge
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Walter Sickert, Hilda Spong as Imogen Parrott in Trelawney of the Wells,
1898, oil on board
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Among my
favourite things in the art fair proper are a Walter Sickert painting Hilda Spong as Imogen Parrott in Trelawney
of the Wells at Brownsword Hepworth and a series of 1930s photographs
by Keith Vaughan at Austin Desmond (original prints I think) from the series On Pagham Beach. Vaughan’s undeniably homoerotic
snaps feature a series of sepia toned young men horsing and posing on a beach
in Devon. The impending war that would destroy so many of these young bodies
gives them a palpable air of melancholy. I also really like them because they
are modest and un-showy, the very opposite of much of the most horrible art fair
work.
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| Keith Vaughan at Austin Desmond |
Over in Art
Projects, which supports emerging galleries and innovative presentations, there
is another body-fixated piece at The Contemporary London. Jess Littlewood’s These Things Will Make You Rich, is a
large-scale digital print featuring an arrangement of decapitated classical sculptures,
many with missing limbs, the folds and curves of their truncated bodies and
clothing, as intimated by the carved stone, accentuated by candy coloured lighting.
This piece is part of a beautifully curated stand, which also includes the
minimalist wall sculptures of Gary Colclough and prints by Edd Pearman.
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Jess Littlewood and Gary Colclough at The Contemporary
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Jason Thompson, Trunk, 2014, enamel paint and varnish on wood, 50x35cm
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As
usual painting is strongly represented at the fair. At Wilson Stephens & Jones,
Jason Thompson’s poppy enamelled abstracts are really appealing and Charlotte
Keates' series of Hockney-esque views of Californian houses and pools at Arusha
Gallery tick the on-trend palm tree box (although they lose marks for the
not-so-nice boxy frames). Back in Art Projects it was good to see Turps Gallery
making a first art fair appearance with a selection of paintings from tutors
and alumni. Also in this section is a solo presentation of Irish artist Peter
Burns at Gibbons & Nichols, whose work brings to mind fellow Irish painter,
Genevieve Figgis, and some strong painting and drawing at Paper Gallery / LLE,
who share a stand.
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Charlotte Keates at Arusha Gallery
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One of the most
coherent presentations in the fair, also in Art Projects, is from Chiara
Williams Contemporary Art who present the work of her SOLO Award winner, Frances
Richardson. Richardson works site specifically, and in a detailed installation
she has used the LAF carpet to create a feeling of woozy instability in a work
inspired by Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa and the post-it notes she uses as aide memoires in her studio. The
larger than life post-its are made from ply, and twist and undulate as if blown
by the wind that is unsettling the raft. Special mention also goes to Canal who
have transformed their space into well… space. The black walls feature work by three
artists who explore the legacy of artist and astronomer Claudio Sole.
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Peter Burns at Gibbons & Nichols
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Frances Richardson at Chiara Williams Contemporary Art
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Although it
has many of the aesthetic qualities I dislike about the trashy ‘pile it high, sell it at an affordable price’ art fair aesthetic. I have to admit a soft spot
for Ardan Ozmenoglu’s Crowns at Nitra
Gallery. Maybe it is the glittery allure of the two rows of tiaras, which stand
out in sharp contrast on a dark background against all the noise around
them. Diamonds in the rough indeed.
Cathy Lomax
The London Art Fair is at Business
Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, London, N1 0QH from 17-21 January 2018.
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| Ardan Ozmenoglu, Crowns, 2017, mixed media |
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