Sunday Fair

I went to the London Art Fair on Sunday. Sometimes these events overwhelm, sometimes they inspire, and this time it was the later. There's always a lot of posturing; so many galleries, artists and buyers all in one space = Egos. But I found the gallery owners more genuine and open to chat, which probably was more indicative of my mood than theirs. Or perhaps on the last day of the fair they'd made many sales and were happy to talk to someone so evidently not a buyer, asking such silly questions (Does she wear wellies when making that?...).
Anyway, I didn't spend long but enough to found some new (and old) Artists to admire.
I didn't realise I liked Lowry so much. I was struck by the care and attention to domestic and small human interactions. And the simple but bold compositions. There was a 20cm by 15 cm piece, all white except for a black rectangle with two dashes on either side. The silhouette of a carriage. It was priced at £95,000. Bargin.

Anna Gillespie represented by the Victor Felix Gallery had great body statues covered in natural materials; beech nuts, bark or acorns. Kind of Eco-Gormley. I'd love to stumble on them in a forest walk...

But my favourite was Vanessa Donoso Lopez, a Spanish artist living in Dublin, represented by Canvas . She constructs miniature childhood fantasy worlds, using dolls, clock mechanisms, paper cuts and tiny china figurines. A clutter of Victoriana collections. A wall of butterflies hanging from clock faces that made them flutter at the tick of each second... oh my heart was in my mouth. It was like looking at myself, my imagined self, my hoards of saved broken toys waiting to be transformed. I even bought a tiny piece... I couldn't afford what I wanted, but that I could afford anything at all was a pleasant surprise.

I was brought up around Contemporary Art Galleries and somehow absorbed the idea that if something wasn't avante garde, or shocking, or abstract, then it was less worthy. I like to be provoked and questionsed. And yet I think I intuitively incline to the figurative and decorative, and this caused a tension. I feel more able to embrace what I like, what resonates meaning for me, without caring what other people think of my choices.