London Art Fair 2018: Everything you need to know
As the autumnal bonanza of London art fairs becomes but a distant memory, we bet you're in dire need of a Frieze-style fix.
The London Art Fair opens this week to the delight of all you who are missing a wander through an art laden maze.
Wondering what it's all about? This is what you need to know about the British art fair mixing homegrown talent with global goodies.
What is the London Art Fair?
At the London Art Fair, British artwork meets a host of international friends. Galleries from five continents - as well as a healthy number of British-hailing establishments - will show artwork by artists from around the world, with 131 exhibitors showing artwork in total. Up and coming contemporary artists will be shown along some pretty well-known neighbours – some of the biggest names in 20th century art to be precise. Works by Andy Warhol, Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso will go on display, as well as British artists Damien Hirst, David Bomberg, Banksy, Henry Moore and German-British painter Frank Auerbach.
When and where is the London Art Fair?
The Business Design Centre has hosted the fair every year since its inauguration and isn’t stopping in 2017. The London Art Fair is runs from 17-21 January 2018, opening at 11am everyday but with closing times ranging from 5pm to 9pm so check on their website before you turn up late.
It is the London Art Fair’s 30th birthday this year
The London Art Fair is turning the big 3-0 this year, having seen all sorts in its three decades. Since its first show in 1989, it has seen up and coming artists become some of the biggest name in UK Art. In 1996, Chris Ofili and Jenny Saville were both awarded the “rising star” away – we think it’s fair to say they’ve lived up to the accolade. For their 10th anniversary, the fair reran a version of the YBA’s groundbreaking Sensation exhibition, which made a household name of the aforementioned Hirst.
Although much has changed, the London Art Fair will still proudly be working with galleries who exhibited way back in 1989, namely Glasgow Print Studio and Brownsword Hepworth Gallery. The anniversary will also be marked by a special collaboration with Art UK entitled Art of the Nation: Five Artists Choose, which will see 5 contemporary artists – Sonia Boyce, Mat Collishaw, Haroon Mirza, Oscar Murillo and Rose Wylie – choose their favourite pieces of UK publicly owned art for display.
Arts picks of the week: 15th - 21st January
The Dialogues exhibition will feature an all-female line up
Women have historically had trouble getting a look in in the art world – a problem the London Art Fair is looking to address. Alongside the main fair, a series of 33 curated spaces will showcase contemporary ideas in special exhibitions called Art Projects. Dialogues, one of these such projects, will be representing the ladies this year – totally, exclusively and wholly. The project is made up of 5 collaborations by pairs of galleries, each of whom will be presenting work that by female or female-identifying artists. All of the work will address issues of gender and cultural identity and the pairing will be designed to create conversation between the co-inhabiting artworks – and hopefully some female-positive conversation among the viewers.
The photography exhibition doesn’t care how high-res its photos are
If you don’t know what “dpi” means – or you do and don’t care – then this is the photography exhibition for you. Photo 50 is a project that has regularly run alongside the main fair over the years, with this year’s edition curated by the Hemera Collective. The title this year is Resolution is not the point. – so don’t expect wall-to-wall pixel-perfect prints. The Hemera Collective think of photography as a lens through which to explore the relationship between image and media, across disciplines and materials. This means that some art in the exhibition may not look like photography at all, but branch into digital image making by Qiana Mestrich and drawing by James Tylor and Laura Willis.
The London Art Fair are showing art but also talking about it too
It’s always nice to have a good natter at an exhibition – the London Art Fair knows this as well as anyone. Alongside the plethora of paintings, photography and more, the fair will also be putting on an extensive talk series. Topics under scrutiny will be as diverse as the digital archiving of artwork, gender and cultural identity, self portraiture and the relationship between feminism, art and weaving. These talks will run throughout the day, everyday – check out the full timetable on the website – with the aforementioned subjects (and more) discussed as dissected by curators, directors and artists displaying work at the fair. Prepare to get educated.