The Best of London Art Fair 2017
Launching the art fair calendar each year, the London Art Fair (LAF) in Islington showcases the very best in modern art - from the early 20th century to today. Held on 18-22 January, the fair focuses mainly on British pieces but this year saw more than a fifth of the 129 showcasing galleries coming from the USA, China, France, Germany and South Korea, adding a more international touch to LAF. The exhibitions span photography, film, performance, installation and museum-worthy art; here are out highlights from the 2017 edition.
London-based gallery Alan Wheatley Art focuses on post-war British art. As part of the gallery's exhibit at LAF was Paul Feiler's 1955 Evening, St Ives Harbour, an example of his abstract style and a piece created at the height of the St Ives School of art.
As part of PAPER gallery's stand is Manchester-based Hannah Farrell's work, which places the photograph as a sculptural object, as well as exploring questions about gender, the human form and the feelings of freedom and entrapment.
Often regarded as one of the finest British artists of his generation, John Minton was renowned for his paintings of portraits and landscapes as well as his illustrations. The Hop Pickers is a work composed of watercolour, pen, gouache and chalk and depicts a scene from a field in Kent.
Swedish artist Maria Friberg uses art as a way of exploring masculinity and femininity as cultural constructs. Still Lives 3 shows a man in a bookshelf, as a way of showing culture as a masculine force.
London-based artist Matt Gee explores the elements in his work, with a particular focus on pollution and contamination. He often mixes man-made properties with those of the naturally-occurring, as seen in Chrome Sun, which shows a mirror resting on a lava rock in Iceland.
