If it’s October, it must be the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea. Generally more adventurous than its Hampstead cousin, this year there are a number of new galleries from the UK and abroad and a continuation of the trend to use non-traditional materials to create art.
Recycled materials are assembled into sculptures of cats, horses, birds, beetles and other animals in the hands of Barbara Franc and Dean Patman, painted miniature soldiers are the raw materials used by Paolo Ceribelli for his maps and flags, while rusted soldiers by Dee Stanford take on the form of sinister archaeological discoveries of the futures, old signs are laser-cut into new tree-like shapes by Dan Rawlings, slices of wood are assembled together by Olivier Duhamel to become the body of a Greek athlete, blocks of paper become the mosaic pieces for Joel Cuoq to create John Lennon’s face while Kwanwoo Lee does this same with printing stamps from the far east to create the face of Marilyn Monroe and Luchio Lim writes stories on rice paper which he then cuts into paper curls which are brought together in beautiful three dimensional wall sculpture.
An elegant ballet dancer is created from rolls of fabric by Martina Hamnk, while, using new optic 3D technology, Jeon Nak creates apparently three dimensional crater-like forms, which have children mesmerised as they try to touch something which does not exist.
The covers of vinyl records by icons such as David Bowie and Fleetwood Mac have now become a basic material for photography by Mark Vessey, Simon James and George Mead, while Bernhard Saint-Maxent provides an artistic twist on the old British wartime “Keep Calm” signs. Lastly, and one of the most expensive artworks here, Charles Fazzino takes a New England Patriots helmet and turns it into a work of art, adding layers of colourful images of the lives of the Patriots’ fans onto it.
There are of course more traditional paintings, sculptures and prints, along with other works created from unusual materials and incorporating neon lights. These are only some of the highlights
