London Art Fair 2016

London Art Fair 2016 at the Business Design Centre, Islington, 20th to 24th January 2016

The 28th edition of the London Art Fair, UK’s premier Modern British and contemporary Art fair is launched between the 20th and 24th January at the Business Design Centre.

Showcasing 128 commercial galleries to a visiting global audience of 25,000, it includes Art Projects, showcasing international contemporary art, emerging artists, large-scale installations, solo shows and curated group displays. Its theme, ’Dialogues’, curated by Natasha Hoare features collaborative presentations between invited galleries from the UK and abroad.

Photo50 features fifty works by thirteen international artists. Located within London Art Fair on Gallery Level 2 it provides a critical showcase current photographic practice. Curated by Federica Chiocchetti its theme is “Masculine Feminine”, thematically based on Jean-Luc Goddard’s 1966 masterpiece “Masculin féminin”.

Talks are sponsored by Photoworks, UK’s leading development agency dedicated to photography who sponsor the Brighton Photo Biennial. The broad range of talks feature Professor Olivier Richon of the Royal College of Art chairing the topic theme of the changing landscape of “gender and visual culture within photography” and Tours of the fair by Sotheby’s and other art educational professional.

The 2016 museum partner is the Jerwood Gallery, following previous partnership presentations by The Hepworth Wakefield (2014) and Pallant House Gallery (2015).

Its theme, “Coast”, includes works extracted from the Jerwood Collection, which consist of over 250 artworks acquired over 22 years, described as one of the most important collections of 20th and 21st-century British art on public display in the UK. Curated by Liz Gilmore (Director, Jerwood Gallery) and Lara Wardle (Curator, Jerwood Collection), it demonstrates how the British coastline has influenced selected artists from its collection.

ABOVE: DAME BARBARA HEPWORTH , Study for Lisa (Hands to Face), 1949 © Bowness Estate

Works displayed in the pavilion include Dame Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, John Piper, John Tunnard and Christopher Wood juxtaposed with other works from the St Ives colony where Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood and Alfred Wallis lived during the early 1930s – Nicholson and Wallis’ chance meeting in 1928 becoming one of the celebrated milestones in 20th-century British art. Works from the Jerwood Gallery’s forthcoming 2016 exhibition programme by John Bratby, Prunella Clough and Marcus Harvey.

Speaking to “Visiting London Guide.Com” Gallery Director Liz Gilmore said:-

“It is a huge honour for Jerwood to working in partnership with such an esteemed event as the London Art Fair. We are thrilled to have been chosen as its museum partner and offered this unique opportunity to showcase the Jerwood Collection and exciting upcoming Jerwood Gallery exhibition programme to a global audience”.

“From our crowd-sourced Bratby ‘People Exhibition’ to focused explorations of household names such as Picasso and Spencer which have come from new collaborations, plus a show of brand new works by one of the leading British artist’s working today – Marcus Harvey – we hope even more people will come and explore what Jerwood Gallery has to offer them in 2016”.

Within the array of established and new up-and-coming galleries, many fascinating objects of art and art histories can be explored, from the fine photographic artwork at the Purdy Hicks, James Hyman galleries and several other UK regional galleries as The Lemon Street Gallery (Cornwall) to “The Glasgow Print Studio” (Scotland), many galleries will be introducing work new to the market, notably:-

Piano Nobile (London) founded by Dr. Robert Travers (2005) focuses on rare quality 20th century Modern British and Contemporary artists of international appeal, consisting of modern British and postwar paintings, drawings and sculpture, impressionist, post-impressionist, futuristic, constructivist and expressionistic work by the avant-garde and Modern and Contemporary British work, by artists as Paul Nash, Sir Stanley Spencer, Henry Moore, William Crozier, Dame Elizabeth Frink, John Golding and Sir Terry Frost, and John Armstrong following our near sell-out exhibition of his paintings at the end of last year.

New to the market are Paul Nash watercolours, in anticipation of the Nash exhibition at the Tate Britain this year; also, the painting by John Armstrong, “Into the Deep”, requested by Tate Britain for the Nash exhibition for a room focusing on Nash’s “Unit One” contemporaries.

John Armstrong, a close friend of Paul Nash and a member of “Unit One”, a short-lived group formed in 1933, which consisted of 11 artists work “Into the Deep” (also illustrated in Sir Herbert Read’s famous “Unit One” catalogue), is shown as is “The Henry Moore A Land: His Lines Follow Life back into the Stone”, recently shown as part of the “Henry Moore: Back to a Land” show at the Hepworth Wakefield in 2015. The work, previously owned by the writer Jacquetta Hawkes, wife of J.B. Priestly OM, commissioned to accompany Jacquetta Hawkes’s famous book, “A Land”.

John Golding who held a major exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in 2015, Dame Elisabeth Frink bronze, “Assassins I”, 1963 Bronze, 1 of an edition of 7, and the early Sir Terry Frost painting “Blue Green Movement”, 1952. Oil on canvas. 50.3 x 76.2 cms 19 3/4 x 30 in are also present.

Waterhouse & Dodd (London and New York) present an unusually large work by Sir Terry Frost. “Untitled”, typical of his early work of the 1970’s, previously not exhibited in London before and shown for the first time at the fair. Kim Keever, a former thermal engineer, whose explosive C-Print colour work photographic work of swirling photographs created by dropping paint pigments into a 200-gallon tank, who has had success in America, photographs can be seen alongside Peter Lowe’s constructivist geometric abstract work.

The Rabley Drawing Centre (Marlborough, Wiltshire) highlights include a monumental new print publication by Emma Stibbon RA “Stromboli” 2016, 98.5 x 142 cms, (intaglio) and a special presentation of the paintings of Craigie Aitchison RA “Crucifixion”, June 2009, Oil on canvas, 142.2 x 111.8 cms.

Opening hours: Wednesday 20 January (11am-9pm), Thursday 21 January (11am-9pm), Friday 22 January (11am-7pm), Saturday 23 January (10am-7pm), Sunday 24 January (10am-5pm). Ticket price: £20.00 onsite. £15 advance. Children free. Concessions available.

If you would like more information or book tickets, visit the London Art Fair website here