Highlights to look out for at London's Art16 this weekend

Date
20 May 2016

Now in its third year, Art16 is a west London arts behemoth, taking over the Olympia centre until Sunday and showcasing work from artists and galleries from more than 30 countries around the world. The comprehensive identity system was once again designed by The Plant, which has worked with the fair from the beginning.

Here are our five picks from the fair this year.

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Julian Charrière: Tropisme, 2015.
Parasol Unit, London

Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London

Great to see a bunch of not-for-profit stands at the fair this year, and among the most interesting was London’s Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art. Showing smaller, subtle works, we loved the eerie sense of time standing still in Julian Charrière’s Tropisme.

The piece is an engraving produced from the artist’s installation of the same name, which is formed from a series of refrigerated showcases containing plants encased in ice, which Julian terms “living fossils”.

www.parasol-unit.org

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Vincent Namatjira: The Queen and Me, 2016
© The Artist

This is no fantasy + Dianne Tanzer gallery

All the way from Australia, This is no fantasy + Dianne Tanzer gallery presents new paintings by Juan Ford, Natasha Bieniek, Vincent Namatjira, Chris Bond, Victoria Reichelt and Oliver Watts. We couldn’t resist Vincent’s adorable pictures of himself with her Maj.

www.thisisnofantasy.com

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Roman Minin: Carpet of Promises

Zenko Gallery, Ukraine

Roman Minin is a very interesting artist indeed, making not only incredibly beguiling large-scale tableaux, but a fab range of T-shirts based on them, his attention to detail is incredible. He told us that the aim of his work is to unite Ukrainian tradition with modern art, using a colour palette that draws on Byzantine mosaics and Medieval church stained glass. The figures in the work are surrounded by symbols and patterns, creating a piece that visually describes themes of Ukrainian coal miners.

www.zenkogallery.com

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Lauren McLaughlin: We Don’t Want Emotional Complications, 2016

Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh

Superb collage work here from young artist Lauren McLaughlin, who only graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2016. Her compositions merge found imagery and text with ripped paper to form intriguing yet subtle pieces, brought to life further with her emotive titles.

www.arushagallery.com

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Cleon Peterson: The Crying Voices (detail)

Over the Influence, Hong Kong

We’ve long been fans of Cleon Peterson here at It’s Nice That, and it was great to see his dark, strange work in all its glory, tucked away in a corner upstairs at the fair. His sexual and often violent work felt all the more visceral large-scale, and makes for an arresting sight.

www.overtheinfluence.com

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About the Author

Emily Gosling

Emily joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in the summer of 2014 after four years at Design Week. She is particularly interested in graphic design, branding and music. After working It's Nice That as both Online Editor and Deputy Editor, Emily left the company in 2016.

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