Thursday 18 January 2018

Diamonds in the Rough

Cathy Lomax hunts for treasure at the London Art Fair 2018

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.

Lubaina Himid, In Spinster’s Salt Collection, 1989, 
New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge

Walter Sickert, Hilda Spong as Imogen Parrott in Trelawney of the Wells, 
1898, oil on board

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.

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.

Jess Littlewood and Gary Colclough at The Contemporary

Jason Thompson, Trunk, 2014, enamel paint and varnish on wood, 50x35cm

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.

Charlotte Keates at Arusha Gallery

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.

Peter Burns at Gibbons & Nichols

Frances Richardson at Chiara Williams Contemporary Art

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.

Ardan Ozmenoglu, Crowns, 2017, mixed media

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