Affordable Art Fair is back!
The best thing about Affordable Art Fair is that it's fun. And after the mania that is Frieze Week it's really rather refreshing. This year, the starlit canopy returns to bestow a little night-time glamour upon proceedings, whilst candy floss-haired ladies totter about distributing candied deliciousness. Did you know that in France, candy floss is known as barbe à papa, or papa's beard? Interesting huh...
Anyway, for me, this spirit of fun is encapsulated in the works of Katherine Hardy, who's currently exhibiting with Art Att. I remember seeing Katherine's paintings at Tenderpixel Gallery a couple of years back, and her current project – illustrations for a children's book – fuses a clean Michael Craig-Martin aesthetic with humour and wit. A deck shoe is shaped like a little rowing boat with oars – it's literally a boater. There's a big penguin in military regalia – an Emperor Penguin. There's even a zorse! Fun, fresh and full of life – a bit like AAF itself in fact.
One of the other aspects of AAF that is always emphasised is the accessibility of collecting art, particularly through original prints, which provide an affordable way in to the works of otherwise prohibitively expensive contemporary artists. This year, that angle is more pronounced than ever I think. I'm told there's prints by Billy Childish on show but I can't find them. I do however spot prints by Stephen Walter, whose quirky locally-nuanced map-work was in the British Library's delightful Magnificent Maps exhibition and also hangs in Spoonfed's local, the Charles Lamb. TAG Fine Arts are offering works in editions of 50 for £650.
There's also prints by Andrew Curtis (in editions of 12) for only £275. I first came across his work at Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2009 and he currently has a solo show at PayneShurvell (which is definitely worth a visit before it shuts on 6th November). Curtis is exactly the kind of rapidly rising contemporary artist that visitors to AAF can invest in if they're even a tiny bit savvy.
My favourite part of AAF at this time of year is the Recent Graduates' Exhibition. Curated by Jess Hall (who I interviewed a couple of weeks ago) the show features work by some of the UK's most promising young artists. This year's highlight is Dominique Ruffell's show-stealing installation piece, formed of fabric sacks suspended from the ceiling by fishing wire and into a large tray of engine oil. It's an impressive, intriguing work, and demonstrates the manner in which AAF continues to evolve and inspire.
The Affordable Art Fair is in Battersea Park until 24th October 2010.
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