LONDON ART FAIR 2022

London Art Fair returns from 20-24 April 2022, highlighting a selection of the best galleries from the UK and beyond. The event will offer both seasoned and aspiring collectors a diverse presentation of modern and contemporary art, alongside curated displays, and an inspiring programme of talks, panel discussions and artists insights.

In addition, London Art Fair continues to champion and support regional museums through its annual Museum Partnership, which this year invites the New Hall Art Collection at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, to showcase their collection of modern and contemporary art by women at the Fair.

2022 EXHIBITORS

This year will see the participation of over 100 galleries from around the world, including Austria, America, Portugal, Sweden, and Australia, with new exhibitors Gillian Jason Gallery, Mothflower and David Kovats; alongside returning names such as Richard Green, James Hyman and Purdy Hicks. The Fair will feature work by some of the world’s most renowned artists working across a variety of media, including Henry Moore, David Hockney, Bridget Riley and Paula Rego.

London Art Fair’s specialism in Modern art continues to be strongly represented through the participation of some of the UK’s leading galleries in the field. Thomas Spencer Fine Art will be presenting a selection of Modern British works on paper, including a previously unseen work by John Nash RA and a large 1970s gouache by Mary Fedden. Gilden’s Fine Art Gallery will showcase a selection of works by American and European Modern Masters, including etchings by Joan Miró and linocut prints by Pablo Picasso. Meanwhile Gerber Fine Art will focus on paintings by Scottish Modern Masters, and selected New Generation artists from the four Scottish art schools. Their presentation will include the work of Joan Eardley RSA, one of Scotland’s most revered 20th Century artists.

Waterhouse & Dodd’s display is focused on the work of David Bomberg and his students, such as Dennis Creffield and Dorothy Mead. Mead’s recently re-discovered oil paintings, which have not been shown publicly for over 40 years, will be on display alongside previously unseen works by Martyn Brewster ahead of a solo exhibition in March 2022.

New contemporary art on show at the Fair includes the multidisciplinary work of Jordi Alcaraz, courtesy of Alzueta Gallery, a reflection on volume, artistic language and time. Exclusive releases from print studio Jealous Gallery include a new edition by David Shrigley and Stoney Road Press will exhibit a number of Leah Hewson monotypes, which have not been shown previously. Elsewhere, Elizabeth Xi Bauer will share works by three emerging artists Theodore Ereira-Guyer, Abraham Kritzman, and Cătălin Marius Petrișor Hereșanu in a range of techniques consisting of printmaking, painting and sculpture and Arusha Gallery will present new pieces by Charlotte Keates, Jen Wink Hays and Connie Harrison.

For those interested in textiles and sculpture Thompson’s Gallery will present new and unseen works specifically created for the Fair, including work by Athena Anastasiou who uses bright acrylic wool to extend her painted image from the boundaries of the canvas. Another new and unseen work will be on display at Candida Stevens Gallery by contemporary textile/fibre artist Alice Kettle, titled Poppy. Meanwhile, James Hyman Gallery will be showing a rare and unique hand woven tapestry by RB Kitaj.

CURATED SECTIONS

London Art Fair reflects contemporary practice and collecting trends within the art world through its critically-acclaimed sections curated in collaboration with leading experts.

Platform

For this year’s annual themed section, guest curator Candida Stevens has chosen Music and its part in Contemporary Art, working with 10 galleries whose artists have created new work exploring the intersection of visual art and music, and the ways in which contemporary art can incorporate aspects of movement and rhythm. The display will range from abstract work referencing the riff of jazz music with off-key colour and off-kilter form to figurative artists representing the process of composition across both art forms.

On display from Candida Stevens Gallery will be Vanessa Jackson RA, whose recent street art project UpTownDancing took over London’s Piccadilly, as well as Ostinato, a series of 23 new unique woodcuts by Celia Cook. Australian gallery Otomys will be showcasing new works by the American painter Ben Crase, and Zimmer Stewart has planned a solo exhibition of paintings and etchings by Tom Farthing themed around fairgrounds. Cynthia Corbett Gallery will be presenting works from Matt Smith’s recent porcelain sculpture project Notes of a Love Song, and Andy Burgess’ vintage inspired and historic ephemera collages.

Museum Partnership

London Art Fair has partnered with the New Hall Art Collection for its annual Museum Partnership. The New Hall Art Collection is a permanent collection of modern and contemporary art by women at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. The exhibition Myth-Making and Self-Fashioning: Women Artists from the New Hall Art Collection presents over 20 artists including Maggi Hambling, Rose Wylie and Miriam Schapiro from the largest collection of art by women in Europe.

The works on display, which include paintings, photographs, textiles and ceramics, will focus on two themes – myth-making and self-fashioning. Mythological tales present themselves in works by Paula Rego and Gayle Chong Kwan which are notable for their evocative storytelling and reference to familiar tales. Elsewhere, the theme of self-fashioning can be seen in the various ways in which women artists have controlled or manipulated the female form in their artwork, whether that be through self-portrait, fashion, or glamour. The presentation of this imagery, such as in works by Rose Wylie and Linder Sterling, will lead the viewer to consider themes of excess, femininity and beauty, which often contain a sense of underlying menace.

Art Projects

Established in 2005 to support emerging galleries, Art Projects returns to showcase the freshest contemporary art from across the globe. Amongst the diversity of the selected work for 2022 there is a sense of wishing to relook towards the future. Many of the featured artists look inwards at their own emotions, beliefs and mythologies, but with a keen eye on what these subjects mean for the wider world, asking: how do my own experiences mirror and contrast with those of others, and how can times of reflection and re-evaluation help us build the world we want.

Highlights include a display by Perve Gallery celebrating the legacy of Portuguese surrealist master Cruzeiro Seixas, which will also include a number of artists creating new works in situ at the fair. Arusha Gallery will present a solo booth by John Abell, entitled Horrorvacui, a new body of large scale framed linocuts. Dunja Krcek’s A Forest Blanket, the main work of Austrian gallery Kunst ab Hinterhof, consists of sewn-together pieces of fabric that have been dyed with differentiated plants and fauna and thus carry the information of the forest space within them. Aleph Contemporary’s presentation will be based on the essays of African American critic bell hooks with artists including Marcelle Hanselaar and Cristine Ruiz Guiñazú.

Hosted in the Art Projects New Media Room is Dreams Must Explain Themselves, an accompanying exhibition of new media initiatives, curated by Pryle Behrman. The exhibition will include interactive sculpture, sound art and social media based works that explore forgotten and imagined stories about the Business Design Centre’s history, as well as creatively reimagining the present and potential futures of the Fair’s site.

Photo50

Photo50 is the Fair’s critical forum for examining distinctive elements of current photographic practice. For 2022, Photo50 will be curated by Rodrigo Orrantia presenting works by British and UK-based artists responding to the idea of an island, looking at practices expanding the possibilities of photography. No Place is An Island will feature the work of fourteen artists, some of which will show brand new works created especially for Photo50.

Courtesy of London Art Fair

Image caption: Raen Barnsley, Can You Please Just Focus, 2021. Courtesy of Jealous Gallery