The Other Art Fair returns

The Other Art Fair returns

11 May, 2012
by: Tom Jeffreys

The Other Art Fair is back, at a new venue, but problems remain.

With launch night full to bursting and long queues winding down the Marylebone Road, The Other Art Fair returned with a bang last night. What sets The Other Art Fair's apart is that it cuts out the commercial gallery and places artists directly in front of potential buyers – it's in some ways a radical break from the art fair norm, and there's just as many people hoping it will fail as there are rooting for its success.

After the mixed reactions to its launch in 2011, this year the organisers have taken on board some of the criticisms and looked to up their game. The most notable change is the venue – from the problematic Bargehouse last year to Ambika P3, a cavernous hangar owned, as far as I can tell, by expenses-fiddling Brownite Baron Paul, the "utterly unreasonable" one-time deputy Speaker. P3 already plays host to the likes of SUNDAY and Kinetica Art Fair, and this year, for better or for worse, The Other Art Fair feels much more like a traditional art fair.

A more minor change is the date: shifted from November to May in order, I imagine, to place further distance between themselves and Frieze Week. What the organisers have taken from the Frieze model is an increased emphasis on projects to supplement the fair's commercial centre. So FAD have constructed an entertainingly retro pop-up office; Jotta have curated a space at the entrance (like they do at Affordable Art Fair); there's daily live music; Jasper Joffe and Harry Pye are doing a fair within a fair (with work by two of Joffe's family); and Cass Art have organised various interactive bits and bobs.

The final change is the panel of judges. Last year I got in trouble for describing them as a “motley crew” and this year it's all change, with a panel made up of Chris Levine, Kenny Schacter, Francesca Gavin and Edward Lucie-Smith. Their role has been to choose 90 artists from apparently over 500 applications and in all honesty they haven't fared too well. Not that they can be blamed as such, but the art seems to have actually gone down hill since 2011. There's many reasons why this might be the case, but it's a shame as, whatever the frills, it's the art that's by far the most important thing.

Genuine highlights are few and far between: Felicity Hammond's images of/in construction [pictured above] and Hormazd Narielwalla's mixed media collages based on tailoring patterns both stand out. I also rather enjoy the Edible Art Movement's entertainingly silly contribution. There are several artists whose work nearly appeals – Lara Kamhi's experiments with light; Ernesto Canovas's muted '50s atmospherics; Giorgio Granozio's architectural images; Mark McCullough's minimal photographic works; Suzanne de Emmony's disorientating views; and Jayne Anita Smith's dreamy sci-fi landscapes – but by and large they're doing similar, but less interesting, things to a slew of already-represented artists.

There's nothing wrong, of course, with people buying art that's not 'great' so long as they love it themselves. But by championing a panel of bigshot judges and claiming to show “the best emerging artists in the UK”, The Other Art Fair creates a problem for itself. It's still early days and the concept, I think, is a good one, so let's just hope that the quality improves. It certainly needs to.

The Other Art Fair is at Ambika P3 until Sunday 13th May 2012.

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Image credit: Felicity Hammond, BYT (A New Everyday Life) 2011, black and white giclee print.

Tom Jeffreys