Grid Art Fair will present its inaugural event in April 2018, launching as a new series of exciting weekend events at 1 Paris Garden, a short hop from London’s South Bank. Happening on a regular basis throughout the year, Grid Art Fair presents a fresh perspective and a new carefully selected roster of 50 artists per edition. For the fair’s first edition, Grid is thrilled to be showcasing the works of artists both established and emerging, from the UK and around the world. Alongside the artist-led booths of the main fair, Grid is pleased to announce several special commissions – including large-scale installations, a series of video artworks exhibited throughout the fair and live performance painting.
Additionally, Grid organisers are delighted to announce their unique partnership with Verisart, the world’s leading platform to certify and verify artworks and collectables using the Bitcoin blockchain. For Grid Art Fair and for the first time in an art fair setting, Verisart will generate Authenticity Certificates on behalf of the artists. The certificates will be attached to the Bitcoin blockchain, validating the authenticity of the artwork in perpetuity.
Fair highlights include a strand of video and digital art, spread out throughout the venue, featuring work by Chris O’Donovan, Gabriella Parisi, Duncan Paterson, Holly Birtles, Vasilisa Forbes and Greg Lee, whose work encompasses a lyric-visual collaboration with the poet Kate Tempest and will be presented as part of the fair’s Events Programme
Installation work – digital, immersive and performative – will be seen throughout the fair. Andrew Hancock – whose paintings, works on paper and video work has been exhibited in galleries, fairs and film festivals around the world, from London to Europe, Moscow and China – has been commissioned to present a multimedia installation during the fair, centring upon his video work “The Oracle of our Species (Temple to the Unseen Artist)”. “Oracle” has been widely praised and is currently on a NASA spacecraft, enroute to the asteroid Bennu as part of the OSIRIS-REx mission. It has already travelled nearly 1.5 billion kilometres since its launch and is not due to return until 2023 – but Grid Art Fair will be showing the work for the very first time in the UK.
The entrance to the fair will be adorned with the striking work of Jo Holland, installed exclusively for Grid – the work will remain for several months, until the next edition of the fair, when it will be replaced by the work of another artist. Near to the main entrance of the fair, Gianluca Pisano will recreate a corner of his own studio, presenting a work-live installation at the fair. Visitors will be privileged to observe as he paints and enjoy his completed works as part of his fair booth. Jim Sanders presents an installation of his extraordinary ‘Solitaires’, unique to Grid and visible hanging from the venue entrance right down through to the main fair areas (see below for more info). Anastasia Belous will also invite visitors to engage with her working practice, offering the opportunity to sit for a large-scale (4x2m) painting, created live during the fair. With each sitter posing for 15 minutes, the resulting work will appear as a mural of faces and will be auctioned at a Mayfair venue, with some of the proceeds being donated to Grid Art Fair’s charity partners, Operation Smile and YOLO Youth. Anastasia will also be holding several themed painting workshops as part of Grid’s Events Programme.
1 Paris Garden London SE1 8NU