Following a very successful 2024, London Art Fair will return from 22-26 January 2025, highlighting a selection of the best galleries from the UK and beyond. The Fair will offer seasoned and aspiring collectors a diverse presentation of modern and contemporary art and an inspiring programme of talks, panel discussions and artist insights.
London Art Fair will see the return of leading modern and contemporary art galleries to the Business Design Centre in Islington (below), including Alan Wheatley Art, Castlegate House Gallery, Galerie, Olivier Waltman, James Freeman Gallery, Portland Gallery, Tin Man Art and Jealous Gallery among many others, displaying work that will span painting, photography, sculpture and design.
Modern British art will be well represented at the fair by galleries including Jenna Burlingham, Crane Kalman, Osborne Samuel, and Willoughby Gerrish.
Museum Partnership
The Art Fair will continue its celebration of regional museums through its annual Museum Partnership, which will be held this year with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich. The Sainsbury Centre, home to a world-class collection of art and artefacts ranging from prehistory through to the late 20th century, will show highlights of their collection of remarkable British art and international artefacts in the display Living Art.
Founded in 1973 when Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury donated their art collection to the University of East Anglia, the Sainsbury Centre has grown into a museum for world art, celebrating a diverse range of artistic periods, styles and materials.
Housed in an iconic grade II* listed building designed by architect Norman Foster, the collection is made up of both recognised masterpieces from twentieth-century European art and historical works from across the globe.
The Sainsbury Centre is the world’s first museum to recognise artworks as being alive. The museum’s display for the London Art Fair, entitled Living Art, will challenge visitors to reevaluate their relationship with art by asking them to meet the works on display not as they would an inanimate object but as they would another person.
The display will include an immersive display where visitors will experience what it’s like to be an artwork and be gazed upon by iconic works from the collection, reversing the traditional boundaries which confine art.
Jago Cooper, Director of the Sainsbury Centre, said, “We are very excited to be the Museum Partner of London Art Fair 2025. It is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the Sainsbury Centre’s collection at one of the most important art platforms in the UK, and we hope visitors to the London Art Fair will find new and meaningful ways to connect with art through our Living Art exhibition.
“The Sainsbury Centre was founded with the radical idea of removing the barriers that exist between art and people and between artworks themselves. We continue to honour that radical intent with everything we do, and we can’t wait to showcase that at London Art Fair.”
Platform
2025’s edition of the Fair’s annual curated section Platform will be curated by independent curator Becca Pelly-Fry (below), whose work stands at the intersection of contemporary art, healing practices and ecology.
The section entitled Today for you, tomorrow for me takes inspiration from the practice of ‘ayni’, common among the Q’ero people of Peru, which proposes a reciprocal relationship between humans and the natural world as a way of keeping in balance with the land, other beings, and each other.
Drawing from Indigenous knowledge that has found resonance in Western science, the Platform exhibition will recognise the complex interwoven ecosystems, mycelial networks, and interspecies communication that make up the natural world, suggesting an interconnectedness between all living things.
Today for you, tomorrow for me, will attempt to re-wild visitors’ imaginations, returning them to a more reciprocal relationship with nature.
Sarah Monk (right), Director of the London Art Fair, said, “London Art Fair is very excited to work with Becca Pelly-Fry on this project and to see the exhibit come to fruition at the Fair in January.
“We look forward to seeing what new insights the exhibition’s content raises and to providing visitors with the timely opportunity to reflect on their relationship with the natural world at a time when so many habitats and ecosystems are under threat.”
The list of participating galleries will be finalised in the coming months, meaning that galleries are still welcome to apply to be part of Platform.
Prints and Editions
This year’s Fair will also see the return of London Art Fair’s Prints and Editions section, which launched at the 2024 edition to great success and highlights galleries whose displays will focus solely on prints and editions. All levels of collectors will be catered for, from those new to print collecting to connoisseurs of the medium, with featured artists ranging from emerging printmakers to household names.
London Art Fair – Where and How?
LONDON ART FAIR – 22 – 26 January 2025
Where: Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 0QH
Full ticket types and prices at www.londonartfair.co.uk/tickets. For the latest news, follow @LondonArtFair on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (#LAF25).
Photography courtesy of London Art Fair 2024 and Mark Cocksedge.