The London Art Fair

has already finished.  It ran until 24th January so I am afraid you have missed it and as there is nothing more useful than a review of a show you can't see, I thought I'd contribute my review.

The London Art Fair takes place annually, usually this time of year, and is housed in the cavenous stationesque space of the Islington Business Design Centre.  It shows what is descibred as Modern British and Contemporary art.  Modern British so I discovered, is its own thing, focused on mid-post war artists such as Freud, Bacon, Bomberg and Terry Frost.  Contemporary art is, well, what it is.

I was attending courtesy of Hugh Mendes who was exhibiting there through the Charlie Smith gallery (the picture is Jane Bown from Hugh's obituary series).  If you are not lucky enough to snaffle free tickets like me then it costs £20 on the door (less if you are a student and deals can be got on line in advance). It is well worth it though because it is vast.  There must easily be over 100 galleries displaying there. There are bascially four main areas.  The first is the immediate ground floor where the sponsoring galleries are arranged. Then up some stairs onto a mezzanine area where the bulk of the show is arranged in four rows, perhaps 20 stalls. Most of the best stuff is here.  Up some more stairs to a balcony area surrounding the main show floor.  Then upstairs off the right more off the wall, projecty type fair.

There is a lot that is good, a lot that is mediocre and frankly a lot that is terrible (did anyone buy the enormous gold head? I hope not).  You can exhaust yourself trying to look at everything and give yourself the condition known as museum feet, combined with masterpeice blindess (where you hobble past a Titian without looking because you've had enough and want some food).  So piece of advice, simply amble around and wait for something to catch your eye. Plenty will.

I came away a fan of a number of people I hadn't really encountered beforeor at least not before.  David Bomberg of which there were several examples, Terry Frost, Roger Holtem, Peter Lanyon, William Scott, Eilleen Agar, Paul Feiler and Heather Neavey.  There were others who I also liked but managed to achieve such an out of focus shot of their name that I have no idea who these excellent pieces were by.  The William Scott is a breathtakingly simple pieces.  I white circle and a black semi-circle on a beige background, but I found it utterly arresting and very calming.  Had I the tens of thousands required to walk off with it, I might well of done.

For example there was the lovely tall wooden strange cabinet structure which I found very engaging. Also this small Copper Sulphate sculpture.  Both and of course I have no idea now who they are by. In fact it is often the sculptuary that particularly attract my eye at these places.  For the extravegant of purse there are even tiny Henry Moore's for sale.  A small bird perched on peice of desk furniture was very good and a bronze age looking ship chimed with my slight obsession with archeology.  There were elsewhere in the fair some very tactile looking alabaster circles (tantalising because of course one must purchase them before one can handle them).

It was also nice to be re-accuanted and see in the fresh old friends like Craige Aitchenson and Eileen Cooper (who I breifly blogged about previously). In fact there were quite a number of RAs dotter around the place.

A couple of things caught my eye and caused me to think.  One is Heather Neavey.  I have seen her work before and it never fails to grab attention.  It is very vivid and bright in terms of colour.  Her colour composition I think is very good.  Also the subject matter appeal, more than a hint of they fey and they mystical these elfin, unkindly women arising from the foliage. Photographs of it don't really do it justice and it comes out a bit Big Eyes but they really are arresting peices.

I am slightly obsessed by maps.  One of my favourtie book of recent times in is A History of the World in Twelve Maps by Jerry Brotton.  I am always intrigued by people's reactions to maps.  There were two maps on display.  One was a large gold circular map of London.  The other was a strange upside down map of England (no Scotland), drawn and with nucleur symbols and bizarre daffy duck type figures on it.  People where drawn to it.  The first one mostly to try and find either a) where they were now or b) where they lived. The other had people intrigued while they tried to work out what it was and the slight sense of "I see!" when they did.  Maps of course have an appeal all of their own and I think some day I may have to explore  putting maps into my art.