ArtRooms presentation video. Courtesy ArtRooms, Lorenzo Stabile and the artists.
January is usually blue, but not in the Visual Arts. It is red. It is the beginning of the year and starts with a big bang: Art Fairs, top quality exhibitions, talks, performances... Everybody wants to welcome the New Year in the best possible way. The unstoppable energy, vibrancy, hunger for new ideas and re-interpretations of old ones makes the third week of January red.
The London Art Fair, 21-25 January, has invited the Pallant House Gallery, in Chichester. It is one of the finest collections of British Art. Simon Martin, Artistic Director, will curate a unique exhibition, The Figure in Modern British Art. The display will explore how different artists in Britain approached the human figure, from Walter Sickert's celebrated Jack Ashore depicting a nude female and clothed man in a charged bedroom interior, and the languid Post-Impressionist Bathers by the Pond by the Bloomsbury artist Duncan Grant; to the abstracted figures of Henry Moore, Wyndham Lewis and Graham Sutherland, and works by David Bomberg, Lucian Freud and their contemporaries. Other artists included in the exhibition led the post-war revival of figurative painting in British art schools. Furthermore, the Fair will present some of the most exciting Galleries of Modern and Contemporary today. Special mention deserves the Art Projects and Photo50 that perfectly complements the Fair with a strong programme of talks. Art of Angel in the nearby station of Angel is worth a visit.
Amelia Stein, White Stable. Courtesy of Oliver Sears Gallery
A new Fair has emerged to energise such intense week: ArtRooms2015. It is an innovative concept of art exhibition that offers independent artists and galleries the opportunity to exhibit their artworks in an intimate dimension. The unique setting of a luxury hotel room becomes a pioneering way to access art. The first edition of ArtRooms will take place from the 24th to the 26th of January at the Melià White House Hotel in Regent's Park. The fair includes an exceptional program of events and workshops and galleries such as: Amstel Art with works by Warhol and Lichtenstein, Reissue Korea with a great selection of Korean artists, Le Dame Art Gallery specialised in Italian and Contemporary Art and The Cult House presenting the avant-guard in London. A highlight is the exhibition curated by Miguel Mallol, a series of 8 rare oil portraits by Gaspare Manos exhibited in 2013 at the Museum of Modern Art in Minsk. He has also shown at the Palazzo Duodo during the Venice Biennale 2013.
"We trust that galleries exhibiting at the London Art Fair will also be interested in discovering "our" talented artists"
says Cristina Cellini Antonini, Founder of ARTROOMS 2015 and Co-director together with Chiara Canal at Le Dame Art Gallery. The fair will represent as well a great opportunity to raise funds for the Charity Partner Bow Arts Trust, during the Gala Dinner there will be an auction with pieces of art being donated by exhibiting artists.
Gaspar Manos, Nelson Mandela. Courtesy the artist.
Parasol unit, in East London, has just open a superb survey of the highly respected, albeit rather young, artist Katie Moran with paintings already in the Tate Collection, Zabludowicz Collection and Walker Arts Centre. Her gallery, Modern Art in Clekerwell, opens on Thursday a new show by the American artist David Altmejd. In 2007 he represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. This exhibition is comprised of a number of enigmatic and surreal head-like sculptures, as if witnessing a sci-fiction movie, that stand on tables and plinths.
David Altmejd, Young Mother. Courtesy the artist and Modern Art.
Virgile Ittah & Kai Yoda will transform the Hus Gallery, in Mayfair, into an immersive and sensory environment. Visitors are encouraged to touch the objects on display and to move freely throughout the installation. The Middle East Ayyam Gallery, also in Mayfair, will present landscapes by the Syrian painter Thaier Helal in his first exhibition in the UK. Ronchini Gallery, based in Mayfair, has organised a show by the Italian Arte Povera artist Pier Paolo Calzolari. It will focus on drawings, studies and projects that will span the course of Calzolari's career from the early 1960s to the present and give an overview of many of Calzolari's signature concepts, offering insight into the artist's ongoing interest in light, matter and time. Finally, do not miss the Serpentine Galleries with a Latino Fiesta / German Seriousness combo for a great fun afternoon in Hyde Park before it ends mid February.
MauPal, The Flying Pope. Courtesy the artist and Le Dame Gallery.