Exhibition review: LONDON CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR 2021
London | September 09 – October 01, 2021
THE LINE Contemporary Art Space

ITSLIQUID Group, in collaboration with YMX Arts, is glad to share the impressive results of LONDON CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR 2021, held in London, at THE LINE Contemporary Art Space from September 09 to October 01, 2021, boasting the participation of more than 40 artists, coming from all over the world.

Click here to see the photo full reportage

LONDON CONTEMPORARY provides artists and exhibitors with the unique opportunity to present their works to an international audience of professionals as curators, gallerists, collectors, editors and publishers who seek to acquire, publish and encourage the best contemporary art talents.

LONDON CONTEMPORARY analyzes the relationship between body and space, and the hybridization between identities and cultural/physical/social/urban settings in contemporary time.

An example of this analyses is Alexander Kamakaev‘s works, that clearly marked author’s individuality. The photographer pays special attention to the landscapes, in which he strives to convey the beauty of his native Siberia, through his eyes. Indeed, he sees the camera as an hybridization tool: Kamakaev uses it to impress the reality he sees and then represents it according to his own perspective to pursue a certain goal. Entirely excluding humans from his pictures, Alexander tryes to show parts of “virgin” nature and fixes it in the photograph beacuse he hopes that the beauty he founds, although would not save the word, at least will make us think what mankind may loose.

Lize Krüger has the ability to evoke emotions with every brushstroke of her works. She is not merely an artist, she is also an activist: Krüger mainly investigates social injustice and mental health and puts the vulnerability of the human psyche under a critical spotlight. Loss, mental health, and abuse are at the forefront of Lize’s artworworks, and she use them to invites the spectator to realize that something fragile can, in truth, hold so much power, reminding us that vulnerability should be embraced and cherished. Therefore, her works becomes a symbol of change, growth, and renewal. Ania Freindorf‘s works are a starting point to reflect on the relationship between human and space: through her audiovisual project “Naked Glaciers Expedition” she wants to witness and create strong visual documentation, both in photographs and film, of melting glaciers on all seven continents. Her personal and artistic treatment allows to appreciate the beauty and the trauma of the glaciers still existing on our planet, and gives today and future generations the possibility to understand what glaciers are and how each of us can help stop future damage, even by small actions. The main objective is to create a forceful and passionate visual archives that will tell the glaciers’ stories in the years to come.

Spaces, nature and weather inspire also Laura Andrews‘ artwork. During her chilhood she lived a life of travelling and living in several different countries, mostly in Jamaica and Malaysia. Through the creation of colour and light, she puts on her works memories of the weather and scenes of these countries, particularly before, during and after the monsoon season, with the colorful plants, trees, blossoms, rich beach and mountain scenes.

Today, more that in any era, the phisical contact leaves place for digital. The connection between different spaces and prospectives is the main concept of Paolo Bianchi interactive installation “Aetere”. The artist created a digital installation in which is shown the content of the work only watching through lens, reflecting on the fact that sometimes we are unable to catch the essence of what we see and we judge by appearances. Showing scenes of love, he affirms that it is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. This digital work shown in London, is directly linked to Bianchi’s work “L’essenziale è invisibile agli occhi”, exhibited simultaneously during our event “Future Landscape” in Venice: thanks to an intelligent technology, the public in Italy can fell connected with the public in UK just placing their hand on the tablet beside the work. In this way monitors notify, by sound and colour, the presence of someone and the viewers of both the exhibition can shake hand with a totally stranger, digitally.

The event also included a selection of valuable video artworks, like “Every Woman” by Cristina Elias. This video performance, specifically, addresses a woman’s right to her body, that today is the target of paradoxical attacks. Sometimes it must be hidden because obscene, because it evokes undesirable desires. Other times, the woman’s body transformed into a commodity is overexposed, her nudity exploited. Considering themes such as gender, identity and society, this work places the woman’s body in a place where opposites try to live together: an individual body and a political/collective body; the right to visibility of the naked body and the danger of the exploitation of that same nudity. We can’t forget to mention also “See the World through Errored Overlay” that shows Hongil Yoon‘s idea about our way of consuming images in the digital age. People are overloaded with the information of images and they confused their identity between reality and virtual reality. They wander around the circulation of images and lose their perspectives of seeing the world. This video is part of The Blair Witch Project, which is about the circulation of image and space perception through the technological world.

The 2021 edition of this event was a confirm that, in these challenging times, we need to rethink our relationship with the space, body and identity, and that’s all shown in LONDON CONTEMPORARY.

organized by ITSLIQUID Group
curator Luca Curci
gallery manager Massimiliano Gordiani
project managers Francesca Brigandì, Giulia Tassi
project coordinators Veronica Piras, Giulia Spagnuolo
collaborators Camilla Morandin, Ilde Strobbe
graphic designer Marina Caracciolo
supported by Cerem Monaco | Częstochowa University Of Technology | Dupon | Enfasia | Green Cross France

VENUE
THE LINE Contemporary Art Space
Craft Central, 397-411 Westferry Rd, Island Gardens, Isle of Dogs, London E14 3AE
September 09 – October 01, 2021
11:00AM – 04:00PM | Monday – Friday
Free entry

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COVID-19 Protection Concept – ITSLIQUID Group

The health and safety of our staff and visitors are of predominant importance to ITSLIQUID Group. This Protection Concept governs how we intend to operate after the lockdown has ended, the rules that will be applied inside the exhibition spaces and how these will be implemented in practice. Read more.

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ABOUT US

ITSLIQUID is a web based information platform, founded in 2001 by Luca Curci, dedicated to world wide distribution of information about calls for entries, exhibitions and events at some of the world’s leading art galleries, museums and foundations selected. ITSLIQUID has already built a readership of more than 250.000 qualified subscribers. Among them architects, designers, artists, collectors, art critics, curators, dealers, and other personalities of the International art, architecture and design world. It provides advertising services, press office services for events and projects, articles and specials published on the website, media partnerships services.

During the last 20 years, ITSLIQUID Group has became a cultural hub between creatives, exhibition spaces and art lovers. Among our international partners, Art Now Fair, Art Vancouver, Design Tokyo, INDEX Qatar, INDEX Saudi, The Big 5 Construct Dubai, The Big 5 Construct Qatar, Photo LA Los Angeles and international magazines like Art Style. ITSLIQUID Group supports some of the most important no-profit organizations, like UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, SSCS – Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, One Tree Planted, The Ocean CleanUp and Plastic Oceans, with the goal to increase public awareness about environmental issues. Click here to find out more.

ITSLIQUID GROUP includes a section dedicated to the organization of international art events, managing exhibitions of painting, photography, video art, installation and performance; it organizes solo and collective shows, art residencies and international contests. Its object is to use new technologies to globalize the language of art, to connect artists working in every part of the world.

ITSLIQUID Group manages a variety of art spaces all over the world; among them THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space in the heart of San Marco Square in Venice and different historical buildings, THE LINE Contemporary Art Space in the London city center and other different partners worldwide. Since its beginning, the group has organized more than 250 events all around the world, involving more than 5.000 artists, in more than 60 international venues in Italy, USA, Canada, UK, Spain, France, etc. Most of the last events have been realized in museums (CCCB – Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona in Spain, NCCA – National Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow, etc.), galleries and private foundations.

ITSLIQUID is based on fluidity, motion, connection and accessibility. Making things easy to do. Welcome.

OUR LOCATION

THE LINE Contemporary Art Space

The Forge building was part of the Victorian iron shipbuilding industry. The imaginative conversion where Craft Central is located, places a free standing birch wood construction within the listed walls. Although some alterations have been made to the structure, much of this exciting building remains intact. The solution is a virtually free standing two storey birch wood construction in two sections running either side of the central listed pillars. This design provides selfcontained studios with a full height exhibition space at the front of the building and bleacher seats as a striking and usable feature which clear the overhead cranes.

The Craft Central is a gallery space daily used to have craftspeople around who want somewhere to work occasionally rather than commit to a full-time studio and who contribute to the art community in The City. The large exhibition space/gallery at the front of the building is 1,000 sqft, excluding the bleacher seats. It is an exhilarating space. You’ll find huge feature windows, exposed brickwork, eight former furnace chimney breasts, old gantries, ironwork and industrial fittings – even two overhead cranes (in full working order!). Craft Central is located in a largely residential area, close to the river and within easy access of the business districts of Canary Wharf and Surrey Quays. Only four stops from Canary Wharf and the Jubilee line (Crossrail station in 2018) two stops from Greenwich.