The annual Other Art Fair has been taking place at the Truman Brewery this week. Sharing space with the Moniker Art Fair, it’s one of the biggest exposes for independant artists around.
We’ve covered this show a few times here on Inspiring City and last year posted our top 10 artists you need to know about. This year we’ve done the same and sought out artists who caught our eye at the show. So with that in mind, here is our top ten artists you need to know about from the 2015 Other Art Fair.
1. Beast & Burden – www.beastandburden.com
Although this list is supposed to be in no particular order I’ve put this duo near to the top because they were one of the standouts from the show for me. Initially macabre looking, here we have what are essentially elaborate egg cups made out of the carcasses of the bird from which the egg comes from. It’s not meant to be morbid, it’s meant to challenge our thinking and to understand where our food comes from. The bones of the birds are bleached and conditioned so that the resultant vessel is really quite remarkable.
2. Carolina Mizrahi – www.carolinamizrahi.com
I was drawn to Carolina’s work on account of it being entirely pink. A photographer in the main all her images at the show were staged in pink with pink settings. The display as a result was striking. That’s not all she does of course and her website features surrealist images which are striking and well posed.
3. Liron Kroll – www.lironkroll.com
Another photographer I really liked the look of was Liron Kroll who creates photomontage which she describes as invented realities which feed off the tension and dissonance created by staging mundane moments in life. Any number of her images can contain many bits taken from other photos which would have been taken at a different time and in a different place. The result is a highly stylised and surreal image
4. Tom Lewis – www.tomlewis.co.uk
Cartoony and seemingly inspired by Japanese Manga art, Tom’s work is immediately impactful . Putting together lots of different random themes within each painting they eventually build into a story which presumably each viewer will determine for themselves.
5. Elena Garcia De La Fuente – www.elenagf.com
Spanish born Elena Garcia De La Fuente has been London based since 1999 and has exhibited all over the World. Painting in oils she was showing a number of pieces from her ‘Looking at art’ series and I liked this one in particular called ‘I am a Triangle’. It’s a cool little series showing people interacting with art in galleries.
6. Dameon Priestly – www.dameon.co.uk
Dameons work featured a series of melancholic images of young women with quotations written onto them. According to his show literature he traces historically recurring patterns of political thought and behaviour. The paintings are a depiction of what can lie beneath the surface in what at times can seem like a seemingly innocent image.
7. Gina Martynova – www.ginamartynova.com
Gina Martynova is an illustrator and fashion designer whose artwork, according to her site, fuses elaborate technical designs with a touch of whimsy to create surreal worlds filled with bold dramatic characters and deep symbolism. I was struck with some of the works from her Folklore Fashion Tales series which seem to combine both her illustration and fashion designing skills perfectly.
8. Bruno Bermon Berchi – www.brunobermonberchi.com
A digital artist and qualified architect, Brunos work explores what he describes as the fine line between architecture and art. Prominent amongst his work at the show was a digital painting called ‘Madame Prune’ featuring a seated woman and a boy looking at the image in a gallery. It’s a mixture of photography and illustration created in a digital format and has an intriguing look to it.
9. Roy’s People – www.royspeople.com
Our friend Roy’s People was back and has got a new look. Moving away from the staged photographs with the little people which made his name he has started to do more installation work with his little heroes series. This is an area he seems to be moving into and it will be interesting to see how it evolves further.
10. Fran Giffard – www.frangiffard.com
Orthinological artist Fran paints birds on old diary pages and has expanded her range this time out by added larger format drawings, again featuring birds. They take much longer such is the detail, around one and a half weeks for one large scale piece. The birds she paints on diary pages are always popular and the shape and type of bird she paints is often influence by the way the text has been written on the page. We love birds on Inspiring City so Fran’s work is always going to be well received by us.
The Other Art Fair runs from Friday 16 October to Sunday 18 October 2015 and is hosted inside the Old Truman Brewery via the entrance which is on Hanbury Street. You can read about last years Other Art Fair here.
