Affordable Art Fair

By Jo Phillips

The Affordable Art Far Battersea offers visitors the opportunity to buy and collect artworks even if they are not experts in contemporary art or experienced art collectors. The fair consists of 110 galleries, 1,000 artists and the pieces vary from £100 to £5,000, so that everyone will have the chance to fall in love with a piece and bring it home. Having taken place from 20th to the 23rd of October this year, it presented a diverse collection of contemporary paintings, prints, photography and sculptures by different artists and brands.

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The story of the Affordable Art Fair started back in 1996, when its founder Will Ramsay opened “Will’s Art Warehouse” because he noticed an increasing interest in contemporary art and the London gallery scene. At the art warehouse, he presented relatively unknown artists so that he was able to offer works from £50- £2,500 by over 150 different artists. Due to the great response to his project, Ramsay decided to create the Affordable Art Fair in order to take his idea to the next level. He embraced other galleries to sell affordable art and launched his first art fair in Battersea Park in October 1999. The following year, he went on to launch a second event in Battersea Park to showcase entirely different artists and now, up to 22,500 people come to visit each London fair. Furthermore, Ramsay also established fairs in Bristol, Amsterdam, Brussels, New York, Milan, Singapore, Hamburg, Seoul, Stockholm and Hong Kong. Over 1.9 million people have visited his art fairs so far, buying art that is worth more than £265 million. In addition to the fairs, he also founded the contemporary art-hub PULSE, co-founded by Asia’s leading art fair “ART HK”, as well as being a shareholder in India’s first international art fair “Art India”.

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This year’s Affordable Art Fair featured workshops for children and adults, talks and tours, print studios, and virtual reality experiences. Furthermore, the fair presented new and emerging young talents and artists that are at the beginning of their careers.
Here are a few previews on some of the artworks that were on offer at the 2016 autumn edition:

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“The Present” by Paul Wardski, 70 x 100cm, £200

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“Mountain II” by Clare Cutt, 61 x 101cm, £550

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“Rum Idol” by Michael Dix, 75 x 55cm, £1000

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“Yellow Green Landscape” by Maria Jose Concha, 80 x 80cm, £1800

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“Shoal of Angels” by Joy Trpkovic, 31 x 31cm, £1500

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“Indian Summer” by Laura Fishman, 80 x 150cm, £2700

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“Clouds of Passion” by Alicia Savage, 101.6 x 101.6cm, £4260

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