London Art Fair, Islington - review - Arts

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Contradiction reigns at the London Art Fair. The main fair is dominated by British art of the post-war era, much of it modest and lyrical compared with the severity and fire and brimstone emerging from Europe and the US at that time. And yet it also features Art Projects, a cluster of edgy galleries, often too fledgling to participate in the more resolutely contemporary Frieze. There is plenty of good art in both these areas - and while some will sell for tens of thousands, much is more affordable.

At the high end, a tiny butterfly painting by Damien Hirst is on sale for £45,000 at Counter Editions but two densely energetic paintings by Phyllida Barlow at Richard Saltoun's booth are a snip at just over £3,000 each. Other highlights include a mini Bridget Riley retrospective across several booths, from Sixties black-and-white prints which still sizzle to more tranquil recent colour screenprints. There is a similarly pleasing abundance of abstracts by the St Ives painter Peter Lanyon across various stalls.

Art Projects' experimental spirit is summed up by Edel Assanti's booth, the very walls of which are an artwork - a shack painted by artist Gabriel Dubois.

Meanwhile, Sue Steward, this paper's photography critic, transforms an unforgiving mezzanine space with The New Alchemists, a display of photographers who are as much sculptors, painters, archivists and conceptualists. Lurking amid the unremarkable at this fair are works of real quality. You just need to hunt the good stuff down.

Until January 22 (08448 480 136, londonartfair.co.uk)

London Art Fair