Art Market Monitor

The Financial Times‘s Francis Hodgson has been poking around the photo exhibits at the London Art Fair:

The London Art Fair has been deliberately shifted more towards photography this year. There is the perception of a void since the demise of Photo-London a few years ago, and the attraction is obvious. Photography tends to be affordable and popular. Both of these appeal in a year when all gallerists have reason to fear that some clients will keep their pockets firmly buttoned.

The special selection of photographs chosen by guest curators is a mixed bag. The stand-out is a wonderfully no-frills series by British photographer Nigel Shafran on the unlikely subject of dirty plates . In each view is a pile of dishes, and a caption identifies what they contained and who the meal was shared with. It sounds unpromising but these pictures resonate in the mind like Balzac or Theodore Dreiser, quietly brilliant realism.

In the same curated section, I liked the work of Alastair Levy, who makes pleasing mini-sculptures out of such things as Post-it notes or elastic bands that become oddly more than the sum of their sweet but slight parts when photographed well.

A Change of Focus at London Art Fair (Financial Times)

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