Words by Lauren Baker

At this year's London Art Fair, the works that stayed with me were not the loudest or the largest, but those that held space quietly – the ones that gave me an almost uncontrollable desire to touch, to pause and that lit up the five-year-old in me with a big grin.

Selby Hi’s Flowers Are My Whiskers (Alveston Gallery, Stand 24) immediately disarmed me. The tufted wool feels soft and playful, yet the gaze is psychologically charged, creating a moment of unexpected joy.

In Leigh Davis’s Stacked Form (The Redfern Gallery, Stand 32), carved ash is built into a vertical rhythm of balance and compression. Architectural yet bodily, the work feels grounded in its presence, without needing to perform.

Lydia Smith’s Internal Universe (Cramer Street Gallery, Stand E19) introduces a sensuous calm. The bronze curves loop and flow through space in a way that feels protective and inward, as though the form is quietly holding something unseen.

Julian Wild’s On the Edge (Blue) (Royal Society of Sculptors × TM Lighting, Stand G6) pushes delicacy further still. Glass and light work together to create a moment of suspension, where shadow becomes part of the sculpture and weight seems to dissolve.

Material awareness runs deeply through Isabel Fletcher’s Grid Drape (sectional) (Cavaliero Finn, Stand P8), made from satin ballet shoe offcuts. The work speaks of labour and memory, transforming discarded materials into something reverent and human.

Michael Rice’s ceramic fragments (Thrown Contemporary, Stand P2) feel excavated rather than made – ritualistic forms that tell a story through cracked surfaces, rich colour and the solid power of fired clay.

Anchoring the selection is Picasso’s ceramic plate (Fairhead Fine Art, Stand 48). Here, porcelain becomes a face: playful, immediate and unapologetically expressive, quietly dissolving hierarchies between sculpture, ceramics and play.

Together, these works reflect a sculptural language I feel deeply connected to: one rooted in attention, material sensitivity and presence. Above all, they reminded me why I make work at all – each of them made me smile.

[ left ] On the Edge (Blue) by Julian Wild

[ right ] Lauren Baker surrounded by her art

Words by Laura Ferguson

Art fairs, and art itself, are cultural litmus paper - they are a visual barometer telling us both what is hot and current but also, on a deeper level, what we care about as a society now.

The focus on materials and craft at this year’s London Art fair is evident from the start with the first curated Platform section of the fair The Unexpected focussing on artists who disrupt familiar boundaries to expand what materials can represent and do within their practice.

Not just in this section but throughout the fair, galleries like Thrown and Ruup and Form showcase artists who delight in materiality, manipulating their chosen medium in fresh, new ways. Roger Coll’s gravity-defying knotted sculptures for instance play with finish creating an ultra-glossy surface that mimic metal or plastic rather than stoneware. Whilst Vanessa Barragão’s monumental hanging sculptures utilise up-cycled materials such as wool and tercel to create organic, vegetal, textile landscapes – their own unique ecosystem – a direct response to the artist’s interest in sustainability and ecology. “In my work, the material acts as a narrative tool rather than just a medium. I use discarded yarns from the textile industry to craft my pieces. By reusing these fibers to create representations of the natural world, I give a new life to materials that would otherwise be discarded. The work highlights the beauty and fragility of our ecosystems, using these materials to invite reflection on nature's value and resilience”, the Portuguese artist explains.

Elsewhere in the fair, we continue to see a plethora of different media – glass, concrete, ceramic and textile, not just paint on canvas, as well as galleries with a focus on craft and ceramics. A tantalisingly tactile mixed media sculpture by The Boyle family at Horton London stood out on the upper floors, a slab of sandy beach so lifelike it makes you want to caress its rippled surface. Whilst The Royal Society of Sculptors booth was also a visceral delight with works by Meitao Qu – A Grand Budapest Hotel meets Dolls House of Dreams concrete sculpture and Annie Trevorah’s whimsical, surrealist sculpture Spawn being particular favourites.

This focus on materiality can be looked at within a wider framework. Namely, a distancing from conceptual art in favour of work that is material-led, sustainable and thoughtful.

Perhaps it is the uncertain times we are living in fuelling this renewed interest in craft and a desire for something more concrete as well as ethical. Or, perhaps as humans we are always drawn to materials which surprise. Either way, London Art Fair presents the full gamut of visual and tactile delights.

[ left ] 'Vital' by Vanessa Barragão

[ right ] ‘Elemental Study for the Barra Site, World Series, 1993’ by The Boyle Family

Gemma Rolls-Bentley has dedicated her life to the arts. Specifically, she is committed to underrepresented artists’ groups with marginalised identities. And she is on a mission to bring in  bigger audiences to access and have experiences with art, to have the opportunity to live with and to look at art that reflects them.

For almost two decades the art curator and writer from Sheffield has toiled to make a living from doing the work she loves and cares about. “I’m now in a position where, through my curatorial practice, I’m able to work with artists who I feel most excited about and who I feel are making really valuable work that helps make the world a better place and helps people see different perspectives,” this real live wire explains, passionately.

“The artists who I choose to work with are the ones who have very strong messages in their practice—messages around empathy, kindness, inclusion.” Being someone to whom diversity is very important, Rolls-Bentley works with a lot of artists who identify as female and come from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Besides organising exhibitions, putting underrepresented artists in the spotlight and working with collectors, there is also another project that has kept Rolls-Bentley busy over the past few years: writing her first book. Naturally, she has poured her heart and soul into Queer Art: From Canvas to Club, and the Spaces between. Nearly 200 hand-selected artists from all around the world and a vivid collection of their artwork can be found within its pages. The book is a real labour of love, celebrating the massive and lasting global impact of LGBTQIA+ artists, with a foreword from none other than Sir Isaac Julien.

There is a lot of belonging to be found in art, especially when it is hard to find in other places or in society. Rolls-Bentley’s new book is the latest part of her project to ensure her vision stays true—that art can help to make this world a better place.

Words by Anne Kaerst, photography by Christa Holka

Following artist Maxim Burnett’s presentation with BWG Gallery at London Art Fair on the 22-26th January, Anna Moss profiles the artist’s practice in Industry Incarnate: Why the Aesthetic is Not an Afterthought.

At Islington’s Business Design Centre, Burnett showcased his monumental scale triptych, ‘Industry Incarnate’, a series of paintings depicting contemporary ‘titans of industry’. The artist transmutes modes of hyper- industrialised extraction into sublime and deific figures. They embody the kind of ‘inhuman beauty’ that D.H Lawrence, experiencing the early effects of mining in Nottinghamshire, wrote of: ‘Men but not men, but animas of coal and iron and clay. Fauna of the elements, carbon, iron, silicon: elementals.’ Through poignant visual allegory and technical virtuosity, the artist imbues the soullessness of mechanisation with a spirited handling of paint. Feverish, incandescent pigment breathes life force into his dynamic figures, whether they personify an oil rig  on the sea or palm extraction on land. Their sculptural rendering recalls the visual language of Soviet Constructivists, such as Valentina Kulagina, a key influence on Burnett. Interested in the predominance of Baconian ideology, the artist also employs these art-historical references to interrogate how this secular principle is exerted in contemporary industry. 

Integral to each painting is their encasing in the artist’s hand water-gilded frames: a form of artistic veneration that is both personal and metaphoric. In 2021, Burnett’s battle with a form of cancer, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Type B, marked a paradigm shift in his practice. Following his recovery, the artist in his own words, seeks to ‘enshrine and eulogise a sense of the twenty-first century, to make something that will outlive me. I ask myself after each painting if I’d be happy with it being my last’. Religious sentiment is harnessed as an artistic device, echoing Post-War art’s preoccupation with secular transcendence: Francis Bacon’s visceral Crucifixions, or Mark Rothko’s epic and tragic canvases. When faced with a bond to machinery driven by functionalism—Burnett  implores us to consider our relationship to natural order by re-engaging our most historic,  human and aesthetic sensibilities.

Words by Anna Moss

The 36th edition of London Art Fair is an unmissable opening to the international art calendar, highlighting a selection of the best galleries from the UK and beyond.

The Fair will offer both seasoned and aspiring collectors a diverse presentation of modern and contemporary art, alongside curated displays, and an inspiring programme of talks, tours and performances.

This year will see the participation of over 120 galleries from around the world, including Japan, Portugal and Turkey.

In addition, London Art Fair continues to champion and support regional museums through its annual Museum Partnership, which this year invites Charleston, once home to the 20th century’s most pioneering artists, writers and thinkers, to showcase their unique collection of art, textiles and ceramics at the Fair.

The Ballhaus was opened by Clara Bühler and her husband Fritz on September 13, 1913, and was first called "Bühlers Tanzhaus", but the name "Clärchens" quickly established itself among Berliners. While the high society celebrated in the Spiegelsaal, all other Berliners danced in the ballroom. For more than 100 years, dancing and celebrating have taken place in the two halls.

Clärchens Ballhaus is one of the last remaining ball houses from the 20th century. Its special feature is the Hall of Mirrors, which has been preserved in its original state to this day.

In 2019, culture investor Yoram Roth bought "Clärchens Ballhaus". A whole century has left its mark and renovations are planned for the house to preserve the old charm. Yoram Roth: "It should remain exactly what it is. Some things are simply right. I can't imagine clinking of glasses without dancing, and I feel obliged to the more than 110-year history of the legendary Ballhaus on Auguststrasse.”