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London Art Fair

London Art Fair, the UK’s premier Fair for Modern British and contemporary art, kicks off the cultural calendar with its 27th edition at the Business Design Centre, Islington, from 21-25 January 2015.

The Fair presents a unique overview of the art world, with 128 exhibitors ranging from established UK-based Modern British and contemporary galleries to innovative emerging spaces in Art Projects; as well as international gallery presentations from Milan, Paris, Toronto and New York. With an engaging programme of curated exhibitions, talks, tours, films and performances, the Fair provides an inspiring and supportive environment for collectors of all levels.

New features and highlights for 2015 include:
a museum partnership with Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, presenting an exhibition of key works from their collection in ‘The Figure in Modern British Art’
two unique, monumental sculptures by Eduardo Paolozzi installed outside the Fair
international ‘Dialogues’ selected by Anna Colin, co-curator of the next British Art Show
Photo50: ‘Against Nature’ an exhibition of photographic installations curated by Sheyi Bankale of Next Level Projects
the inaugural Art Projects Artist Award, furnished by the Fair’s education sponsor Sotheby’s Institute of Art
a film programme in partnership with LIMA, Amsterdam
live performances including ‘B.I.N.G.O’, an interactive game led by artists Henry/Bragg and the premiere of William Mackrell’s ‘North South’

Pallant House Gallery: ‘The Figure in Modern British Art’
Simon Martin, Artistic Director of Pallant House Gallery, curates a unique exhibition focusing on paintings, drawings and sculptures by some of the leading British figurative artists of the 20th century including Walter Sickert, David Bomberg, Lucian Freud, William Coldstream and Frank Auerbach. Housed in a specially designed pavilion at the front of the main Fair, ‘The Figure in Modern British Art’ will explore how different artists in Britain approached the human figure and will feature a selection of exceptional works drawn from Pallant House Gallery’s permanent collection.

The pavilion also hosts a selection of leading dealers; Jonathan Clark Fine Art, PIANO NOBILE and Rowntree Clark, presenting work from their strong Modern British holdings.

Modern British and Contemporary Galleries
Modern British highlights include Rowntree Clark’s recreation of the 1966 British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, featuring earlier works from the five artists exhibited: Anthony Caro, Bernard Cohen, Harold Cohen, Robyn Denny and Richard Smith. Several Modern British galleries, including Alan Wheatley Art and Goodman Fine Art, will carry work by leading Scottish abstract painter Alan Davie RA, who died in 2014 just before a major exhibition of his work at Tate Britain.
Merville Galleries will display a major new sculpture by Susie MacMurray, ‘Medusa’, alongside work by Modern British artists Keith Coventry and Craigie Aitchison, and Gilden’s Arts Gallery present an original 1940s Picasso portrait of Dora Maar.

Fair sponsor Lund Humphries will be celebrating the work of Eduardo Paolozzi, with a stand created by John Morgan Studio, designers of the publishers’ recent monograph on the artist, and a bust of Paolozzi by his friend, the sculptor and fashion designer Nicole Farhi. At the entrance to the Business Design Centre, visitors will also be greeted by two unique monumental sculptures by Paolozzi presented by Bowman Sculpture. The sculptures, Kalasan (1973-4) and Trishula (1966), were originally commissioned by Terence Conran, a former student of Paolozzi, as part of a sculptural children’s playground for his Habitat store in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. The aluminium works are displayed at London Art Fair following Paolozzi’s 70th birthday exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1994.
 
Contemporary highlights include The Multiple Store’s new edition by Yinka Shonibare MBE, ‘Kaleidoscope’, which playfully explores gender stereotypes and power relations; while Redfern Gallery will bring a new edition of prints by American artist Linda Karshan. Contemporary designer makers include Joseph Walsh, whose exquisite woodwork is on show with Oliver Sears Gallery, Edmund de Waal’s ceramics at Crane Kalman Gallery and other leading ceramicists at Erskine, Hall & Coe. Beers Contemporary will celebrate many of the contemporary painters highlighted in their recent Thames & Hudson publication ‘100 Painters of Tomorrow’, including
G L Brierley and Andrew Salgado and visitors to the Fair will encounter ‘Something Left But Not Forgotten’ a sculpture by Tim Ellis, of FOLD Gallery | London, in the foyer.

New exhibitors for 2015, RABLEY CONTEMPORARY will be showing drawings and sculptures from Eileen Cooper RA, ahead of a solo show at the Royal Academy later in the year, and The Reel Poster Gallery will exhibit a collection of rare original film posters including those from Scorsese, Hitchcock and one of only two surviving posters from the Marx Brothers ‘A Day At The Races’ (1937).  New international galleries for 2015 include Rainhart Gallery (Brussels), Voies Off Gallery (Arles), Galerie Martin Kudlek (Cologne) and Hamburg Kennedy Photographs (New York).

Art Projects
Situated alongside the main Fair, Art Projects is London Art Fair’s curated section of emerging contemporary art from across the globe. It features large-scale installations, solo shows and group displays, alongside an extensive film and performance programme.

Introduced in 2014, ‘Dialogues' is a section within Art Projects featuring collaborative presentations from invited UK and international galleries. The five 2015 'Dialogues' collaborations have been curated by Anna Colin, co-director of Open School East, associate curator at Fondation Galeries Lafayette in Paris and co-curator of the next British Art Show.

Galleries participating in Art Projects for the first time include Art First Projects, Division of Labour, Eastside Projects, Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art, Galerie Rothamel, Modern Art Oxford, PAPER, Slate Projects and TinT gallery, as well as South Kiosk, who will be showing a 5M long lightbox work by Joachim Sefzick which will be suspended above the stand. Other Art Projects highlights include the launch of The Catlin Guide 2015, featuring profiles of 40 of the most talented new graduate and postgraduate artists from art colleges around the UK.

The Preview Evening of the Fair this year will see the presentation of the inaugural Art Projects Artist Award, furnished by the Fair’s education sponsor Sotheby’s Institute of Art, with a judging panel carefully selected to include the areas of collecting, journalism, curating and education. The winning artist will receive a cash prize of £2500.

Photo50 ‘Against Nature’ curated by Sheyi Bankale
Photo50 provides a critical forum for examining some of the most distinctive elements of current photographic practice. Curated by Sheyi Bankale of Next Level Projects, ‘Against Nature’ poses a series of questions that consider what it is to look at and display a photograph, and how a photograph can become elevated to the status of an object, act or intervention.

The exhibition will present nine artists working at the intersection of photography, sculpture and performance. Tom Lovelace exemplifies this trifecta, while Andrew Lacon's practice adopts photographic methods and theories to create an often sculptural outcome. Thorsten Brinkmann’s ‘photo assemblages’ incorporate staged photos in which he plays the leading role, whilst always remaining unnoticed or unrecognisable; through his video-recorded tableaux vivants, Adad Hannah explores the nexus of photography, video and performance and how the human body occupies this space.   

Photography
Other photography highlights from the Fair include: Flowers Gallery, showing work by Simon Roberts, Edward Burtynsky and Nadav Kander; James Hyman Gallery, which will be exhibiting photographs from Jon Tonks popular ‘Empire’ series, and BREESE LITTLE with a series of original images from the 1961–1980 NASA space programme. The Fair’s Single Malt Whisky Sponsor will host The Macallan Masters of Photography Lounge, featuring photography from Mario Testino.

Photography Focus Day takes place at the Fair on Wednesday 21 January, including an insightful PhotoVoice panel discussion on 'The Landscape of War' with Simon Baker (Curator of Photography and International Art, Tate), photographer Mike Sheil and photojournalist Jenny Matthews. Other Photography Focus Day highlights include a look at the future of the photobook market with Photomonitor; a discussion drawing on the points presented in Photo50 'Against Nature', chaired by Martin Barnes (Senior Curator of Photographs, V&A) and photography highlights tours led by Jean Wainwright.

Film
Curated by Pryle Behrman, the Art Projects Film Programme runs throughout the Fair in a purpose-built screening room within Art Projects. For 2015, London Art Fair welcomes LIMA, Amsterdam, as a partner of the Programme, with LIMA presenting a selection of recent works from its collection revolving around the imagery of cinema and its relationship to media art.

Performance
On 22 January the Fair stays open to the public until 9pm for Thursday Late in association with Peroni Nastro Azzurro. Special events include the premiere of William Mackrell’s ‘North South’ courtesy of Andipa Gallery – a vocal exchange of the words ‘North’ and ‘South’, presented for the first time as a live performance; and Maeve Rendle’s novel-reading, courtesy of The International 3, which will act as a means to explore the curious relationship between freedom of thought and literal interpretation. 

Further performance highlights include artist duo Henry/Bragg’s exploration of the rituals of bingo through a live, interactive game courtesy of C&C Gallery, on Sunday 25 January.

Talks, tours and discussions
An extensive programme of talks, tours and critical debates takes place throughout the week in association with partners such as the Contemporary Art Society, ArtTactic, Apollo magazine, Lund Humphries, The Arts Desk, Photoworks and Sotheby’s Institute of Art. All are free to attend with a valid ticket to the Fair.

Mary Rozell, Director of Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York and author of ‘The Art Collector’s Handbook’, will reveal the secret to effective art collection management on Wednesday 21 January. On Thursday 22 January Lund Humphries presents personal recollections of Eduardo Paolozzi from ceramic designer David Queensberry, fashion designer and sculptor Nicole Farhi, and Simon Martin, Artistic Director of Pallant House Gallery. ‘A Master Class in The Art of Interiors’ will take place on Saturday 24 January, in association with John Jones bespoke framers and fine art conservators, with Jade Thomson, Feature Editor at LuxDeco speaking to April Russell, Interior Designer and Rebecca Weir, Creative Director of Light IQ.

www.londonartfair.co.uk