London Art Fair 2012: Review
Watch FAD’s highlights from London Art Fair 2012 here:
London Art Fair opened its doors to the public on Wednesday, presenting over 100 galleries, featuring well known ‘greats’ of the 20th century such as Andy Warhol and David Hockney and leading figures within contemporary art. At the forefront of the art fair, is the ArtProjects section curated by Pryle Behrman and Photo50 curated by Sue Steward. These sections offer up an eclectic mix of exciting, fresh and dynamic artists that are sure to become potential leading figures within the art market. The sensitive curation and experimental use of space creates new ways for the viewer to approach and disseminate the work. Art Projects launched in 2005, and last year expanded to encompass selected projects by galleries from London, New York, Germany and Ireland, alongside public galleries and foundations such as The Whitechapel, Saatchi Editions and Serpentine Gallery.
There are some exciting works not to be missed within The Art Projects Film Screening Room, a curated programme of experimental film and video hosted by Pryle Behrman, that explores the overlaps between humour, satire and beauty in contemporary moving image artworks. The screenings show a looped collection of films by artists; Greta Alfaro, Thomas Altheimer, Dan Halter and Dan Farnham. Greta Alfaro’s “In Praise of the Beast” and “Ictu Oculi”are particularly striking. In Praise of the Beast. The artist places a huge cake within a wintry, snowy landscape. The viewer watches two wild boars discover the cake, from a voyeuristic position captured by a still hidden camera. When they finally discover the cakes delights they revel in its sticky mess, rolling around and it becomes increasingly harder to distinguish the cream icing from the snow. The spectacle of the boar’s gluttony and feasting is both majestic and humorous to watch.
Greta Alfaro, In Praise of the Beast
Other highlights within Art Projects and Photo50 are:
Twenty-Six Shades of Red, 2011, From the series Profiles, Each transparency, 10” x 8”, Dimensions Variable, Courtesy of David Birkin
David Birkin works across the media but his focus is on photography associated with conflict and censorship.The Embedded series employs a staggeringly complex layering of digital language to represent the casualties of war. A crucial element in these works is the colour coding: a colour strip represents the name of a victim translated through digital coding, and embedded in the original archival photographic image.
Twenty-Six Shades of Red from the series Profiles, is an installation mounted in light-boxes. Identification methods used by the Iraq Body Count project are translated into deceptively beautiful shades of red which shield the meaning of this important political art work.
Patrick Tresset
Patrick Tresset, a French artist/scientist currently based in London, showcases what he calls his “clumsy robotics” at Tenderpixel Gallery. In his work he investigates the observational sketching activity through computational modelling and robotics. Inviting the audience to take a seat before the robotic artist and have their portrait sketched. This autonomous cybernetic entity represents a playful projection of the artist and is fascinating to watch the as it obsessively strikes the paper with a ball point-point pen.
You’re a Piece of Coral Bleached by the Sun, Juz Kitson
Juz kitson’s wall based installations, the largest being “You’re a Piece of Coral Bleached by the Sun” encompasses the back wall of the gallery space Comodaa.
Kitson stated that “I have an interest in ever so slightly repulsing the viewer at first experience,” Working with a range of materials – including wax, latex, clay, alpaca wool, seaweed, horse and human hair and bone. Kitson seduces the viewer into the space with the ornate arrangements of sculptures on the wall, inviting us to take a closer inspection at the orifices and internal organs on display. The installation is unsettling and grotesque whilst also being beautiful and captivating.
This is it, installation, Ghost of a Dream
The Cynthia Corbett Gallery showcases joint winners of the Young Masters Art Prize 2009 ‘Ghost of a Dream’ Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom presenting us with the vivd, pseudo baroque interiors, that are ornate and almost ritualistic. Exploring cultural obsessions for opulence and the present-day consumer dream. Using the by-products and refuse generated by popular culture, Ghost of a Dream create artworks that invite the spectator to muse upon their personal aspirations and the lure of wealth.
The Art Fair is on for anther three days until Sunday at 5pm. This is definitely not to be missed, alongside the artfair is a programme of talks and lectures held each day, for more information and to book tickets please visit: http://www.londonartfair.co.uk/
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