This year saw Aberdeen Art Fair celebrate its eighth year. It’s the third time the event has been staged at the Beach Ballroom, which now sits alongside NEOS and the Aberdeen Artists Show as one of the city’s main art events for collectors. The event features a tremendous range of galleries and artists, with work from as little as £50 to over £30,000. With a mix of styles, sizes and subjects, the Aberdeen Art Fair is a great option if you’re shopping for an original or print to bring a unique touch to your home.
With such an eclectic mix of works on o er, organiser Gerry Muldoon, of GM Events, felt this year’s offerings were o en about being brave and embracing the unexpected. There’s also a trend toward bigger works, which demand a lot of wall space. Many of the artists on show were expressing themselves on larger than normal canvasses to quite breath-taking effect, such as the immensely impressive draftsmanship of Ade Adesina’s massive monochrome industrial landscapes.
Edinburgh’s Alpha Art Gallery’s stock includes stark minimalist landscapes from Ron Lawson, wonderful brooding seascapes from Hannah Ludnow and versatile abstracts from Natasha Barnes. If photography appeals, then Lee Howell’s slightly surreal work is worth the wall space.
There was also a selection of very contemporary, edgier graphic prints from Glasgow’s Subversion studios that owed a debt to Lichtenstein and Banksy in equal measures.
Women artists were heavily featured at the show, mainly drawing inspiration from nature. Still life painting seems to have fallen out of fashion, and there were relatively few figurative pieces compared with works being sold through contemporary art sales at the main Scottish Auction houses. Landscapes seem by far the most popular genre with wide open, semi-abstract seascape canvases proving particularly popular.
Gerry Muldoon explained, ‘Buyers are looking for absorbing landscapes and dreamlike scenery, which to be honest never goes out of fashion, as well as work that highlights and reflects their own journey and lives. Sculpture is also proving popular and perhaps in this technology fascinated era we are looking for that handmade piece, the one-o that stands out.
‘Once you have decided which of the forms of art that you wish to buy, whether it’s hanging art, photography or sculpture, you need to work out what size of space that you have to work with. The benefit of attending an art fair, such as ours here in Aberdeen, is that you have so many styles, colours and sizes to choose from that you won’t have a problem finding the right piece to complement your décor. And, of course, don’t be afraid to ask for advice and ask if you can take it home to see how it looks on the wall.’