London Art Fair returns from 20-24 April 2022, highlighting a selection of the best galleries from the UK and beyond. The Fair 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, the largest of its kind in Europe.
2022 GALLERIES
This year will see the participation of over 100 galleries from around the world, including Austria, Japan, Portugal, Sweden, and Australia, with new exhibitors Tanya Baxter Contemporary,, Mothflower and David Kovats; alongside returning names such as Piano Nobile, 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. Christopher Kingzett Fine Art will focus on British art of the 50’s and 60’s and will exhibit a pencil drawing by Elizabeth Frink that features two of the artist’s favourite motifs, The Running Man and a Baboon, combined to make a narrative. Meanwhile, 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.
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 Catalin Marius Petrisor Heresanu in a range of techniques consisting of printmaking, painting and sculpture. Gala Fine Art will present contemporary artists including Dan Parry-Jones whose unique mixed-media pieces explore his fascination with the relationship between nature and the man-made, juxtaposing mountain ranges and palm trees with modernist buildings and brightly painted walls.
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 handwoven tapestry by RB Kitaj.
CURATED SECTIONS
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, Eileen Cooper 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 Eileen Cooper 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.
