Frieze Week has become a collective noun for art and design fairs all opening at once in October. Deciding which ones to visit in which order becomes more challenging every year. When planning the launch of Echo Soho, gallerist India Rose James decided to delay the opening until Thursday, so she wouldn’t have to miss Frieze herself.
Every aspect of the boutique fair for female-led galleries reveals the personal touch of its founder who hand-picked the participants of the inaugural fair from her circle of friends. After all, the art world and its business is all about connections, and as a young gallerist selecting other young emerging galleries comes a natural choice.
While half of the galleries are located within walking distance to Echo Soho, the other half are based in less central parts of London, out of town or of no fixed abode. The results is a colourful mix of familiar faces and first encounters. I didn’t expect to spend one and a half hours at a fair with only a dozen stands, proof that size isn’t everything and visual storytelling a gift.
A female-led fair does not automatically translate into art exclusively made by women. The first space you enter on the ground floor is occupied by House of Bandits who dedicate their presentation to artists of any gender, background or discipline who are past or present residents at Sarabande Foundation.
The standout highlights are a couple of site specific installations, in particular Alicja Biala’s takeover of the building’s inhouse chapel which ties in with the artist’s current solo show at Berntson Bhattacharjee’s main gallery. The visually striking installation is enhanced by the multi-sensory sensation of walking across slag which feels and sounds a little like stepping on fresh snow. I didn’t previously know that sunflowers are hyper accumulators and capable of growing in soil with high concentrations of metals, here they grow as bronze sculptures from industrial waste material that remind me of Anselm Kiefer’s homage to Van Gogh.
Diagonally across from the chapel in a corner of the main exhibition space, Alice Black invites visitors into an intimate space created by Rachael Louise Bailey. Sun-bleached curtains salvaged from a house clearance reveal a single bronze ear on patterned wallpaper. On closer inspection the pattern is based on the negative imprint of the plastic cages used by oyster farmers, the ear a cast of an oyster shell damaged by getting entangled in netting. The curtains are all that remain of a former Whitstable home, its guts displayed in vintage frames as a reminder of what once was.
Xanthe Burdett was one of the artists present during my visit and I enjoyed learning about her solo presentation with Wilder Gallery. Working at either really large or really small scale, Burdett examines the relationship between humans and the natural and spiritual realms. At the centre of her solo booth at Echo Soho is a large painting that combines the folk tales surrounding the Green Man with the biblical character of Salome and beheadings in Indian mythology. The large canvas is surrounded by a group of smaller works. Painted on gold-leafed board they resemble religious icons and further blur the perception of physical and spiritual bodies.
Burdett’s body of work mirrors the origin story of the Echo Soho brand which combines the “So ho!” hunting cry of Henry VIII’s hunting parties in the 16th Century, which is thought to have given the area its name, and the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus. A short and snappy title that could not have been thought up by Chat GPT!
With calls coming in from local and international galleries and plans for next year are already taking shape, Echo Soho is unlikely to fade into oblivion.
Echo Soho continues until Sunday. Open Friday and Saturday 11am – 6pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm
Tickets: echosoho.artsvp.com
Full list of participating exhibitors: Alice Black, Alice Amati, AWITA, Berntson Bhattacharjee, Gillian Jason Gallery, House of Bandits, Lamb, Liminal Gallery, Lizzie Glendinning, Pipeline, Wilder and Wondering People.
