This year, London Art Fair returns for its 36th edition. LAF introduces and champions over 120 galleries from the UK and beyond, including Japan, Portugal and Turkey. Visitors are invited to explore modern and contemporary art through curated displays, guided tours, inspiring talks and live performances. The fair features projects from global names working across a wide range of media such as ceramics, prints, paintings, photography, installation and sculpture. Here鈥檚 Aesthetica’s highlights from the event.
In 2024, LAF鈥檚 annual Museum Partnership highlights Charleston, Lewes. The creative centre was once the home of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and the meeting place of some of the 20th century鈥檚 most radical artists, thinkers and writers known collectively as the Bloomsbury Group. Charleston鈥檚 public programme contains mixed-media shows of the Bloomsbury Group鈥檚 fashion, Jonathan Baldock鈥檚 organic sculptures, David Hockney鈥檚 rarely-seen drawings and Osman Yousefzada鈥檚 textiles. At LAF, the display showcases works like Bell’s portrait of Virginia Woolf, as well as ceramics from private collections.
Inspired by LAF鈥檚 partnership with Charleston, this section is titled聽A Million Candles, Illuminating Queer Love and Life. Curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley says: 鈥淚鈥檓 fascinated by the historic house and the stories of the creative community that thrived there.鈥 Platform collates 10 galleries that reflect the resilience, beauty and passion of queer love and life from a wide range of diverse perspectives. Artworks include Ghada Kunji鈥檚 photographic collages, Olivia Sterling’s paintings and Olivia Strange鈥檚 anthropomorphic object.
Photo50 examines photographic practices that expand the boundaries of the medium. The section is titled Grafting: The Land and the Artist, and it looks at themes of communion, co-dependence with the environment, regeneration and resistance. A highlight includes Eug茅nie Shinkle鈥檚 Ideal City (Somebody Else鈥檚 Landscape) which rebuilds parts of paintings by JMW Turner (1775-1851). The installation draws on the culture shock the artist experienced when moving to the UK from Canada in 1997. Shinkle used snapshots of London as individual “pixels” to stage the landscapes. Named after the horticultural technique of grafting 鈥 when plants are joined and grow together 鈥 the show proposes a closer connection with nature.
Encounters collect international practices, as well as projects by mid-career artists who work with new mediums. Curator Pryle Behrman says: “This year, the show expands on how an “encounter” can refer to an unexpected meeting, perhaps one that leads to the discovery of a new artist or, alternatively, a surprising style or subject from a well-known artist.” Highlights include Juliana S铆coli, Lucia Adverse and Sylvia Morgado’s paintings that explore female resistance, through the interplay of their respective pieces.
Installation
London Art Fair also presents an installation by artist Atau H谩mos (b. 1999). The Berlin-based creative practitioner says: ” I experiment with the medium tape and question its basic principles. Through cuts and omissions, I dissolve straight lines, integrate circular shapes, and leave gaps through which the materiality of the surface becomes visible.” H谩mos鈥 colourful piece creates an entrance into the Encounters section.
London Art Fair
17-21 January
Image credits:
1. Li Chevalier, Mirage To Karol Beffa, 2022. Photography on aluminium. H39xW85. Courtesy of April Contemporary.
2. Dior Men Summer 2023 group shot in front of Charleston reconstruction; photograph: 漏 Brett Lloyd (full collection and set not shown in exhibition)
3. Ghada Khunji, FaRIDA X, 2019. Photomontage printed on Hahnemuehle paper. 116.8 x 116.8 cm. Courtesy of Janet Rady Fine Art
4. Eugenie Shinkle, Ideal City (Somebody Else鈥檚 Landscape), 1998. Image courtesy of the artist.
5. Lac Rose no.8 Denisse Ariana Peres, Photography 2021 edition of 10 60cm x 90cm 拢1,100 Open Doors Gallery.
6. Atau H谩mos, Installation at London Art Fair 2024.
