Bambino, Marie Denis, The Affordable Art Fair, London
The Affordable Art Fair, set in a sunlit, autumnal Battersea Park from October 22 to 25 was once again a treasure trove of artistic gems, priced under £3,000. There really is something for everyone here with painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and original prints all on offer in an unstuffy, accessible environment.
From the pretty and decorative through to the intricate or monumental, the sheer variety of pieces on show is one of the shows attractions. The fair’s founder Will Ramsey has now clocked up a decade of making contemporary art accessible to all, and this time over 120 galleries featured their selected artists.
Outside the fair, the colourful intervention in the park was the work of French installation artist Marie Denis. ‘Bambino’ was a series of stacked, multi-coloured hoops circled around the trunks of trees, with more lying scattered on the ground. With the intention of inspiring viewers to ‘be playful’, Marie Denis invited visitors to – unclip the hoops and use them for fun and games – or use them to create some more art. The effect was certainly a cheerful, uplifting sight and complemented the pretty autumn foliage still fluttering on the trees, and the fallen leaves scattered on the grass.
One of the highlights inside the fair was the recent graduate showcase, curated by Jessica Hall. The selected artists produced work which had a unifying thread of a high level of technical skill. Jessica Hall says she looked for work which has “a balance of concept and craftsmanship”. Look out for a further blog post on this up and coming talent – coming soon.
The Affordable Art Fair, London
The fair has come a long way since it was founded in 1999, born out of the success of Will Ramsey’s Art Warehouse which concentrated on relatively unknown artists and offered clearly priced art under £3,000. He explains, “There are so many art galleries around that are simply intimidating, uninformative and unwelcoming and I wanted to set up something different from all of that. I wanted it to be approachable, affordable interesting and fun. And to show that you don’t need to be a squillionarie with a doctorate to be able to buy it.”
He has certainly succeeded – there are now ten AAFs each year, in London (twice a year) Bristol, New York, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne. In total over 650,000 art lovers have attended an AAF and this most recent fair took the total spend of sales through to the astonishing £100 million mark. Will Ramsey said, “Reaching £100 million is an exciting milestone and proof that there is demand for accessible and affordable art.”
