19th January 2014 // London Arts Fair

I managed to visit the London Arts Fair at the Building Design Centre in Islington, which was a fantastic opportunity to witness the current contemporary artwork on offer and to look at the variety of styles each gallery presents. The diversity of styles and mediums used was impressive and incredibly inspiring to my projects.

One of the first artists that caught my eye was Andrew Salgado with his touch of abstract, expressionistic paintings. The bold use colour against the more relatively bland fleshy tones in sweeping strokes introduced a subtle abstraction. Salgado himself states he finds the term ‘portraitist as pejorative and one dimensional’ instead preferring to situate his work in the abstract figurative. His goals possess similar traits to what I pursue with my landscapes (and soon portraiture) which are to paint what is not immediately visible and to engage with the observer. This concept of deconstructing and subsequently reconstructing the reality of identity is an intriguing notion I intend to explore across all bodies of work.

John Monks’ work at its base level is something I definitely related to. His work takes the derelict and through the use of sharp colour changes and application creates an eerily beautiful composition. The foreboding scenes are brightened with explosions of colour presenting an ambiguous setting that can be interpreted as intimating but still easy on the eye. The interior compositions were a particular highlight with the muddy tones and contrast presenting a highly atmospheric piece that captures the mood that the source image potentially held.