In a space filled with beautiful people indulging on foie gras canapés and strawberry cocktails someone silenced the audience to announce the winners of the Catlin Art Prize 2012. I couldn’t help but suppress the feeling that the culinary extravagance was in slight contradiction with the introductory text in the exhibition catalogue, in which Paul Carey-Kent aptly writes that the main downside for recently graduated artists is the current state of the economy – and that only a minority of practising artists can make a living solely by making art.

Steven Catlin, the friendly looking, fully suited man who owns the company behind the prize, announced the winners. He addressed the crowd and said -- unashamedly -- that both he and his colleagues would probably struggle to understand anything about the meaning behind the works on display but that he immensely appreciated the effort that went into creating them and that he believed ‘that all of the artists in the show would make it far in life, whether they won tonight or not.’ He further added that if the winner didn’t want the £2000 prize money he would happily take it home himself. That last bit, I believe, was meant as a joke.

Julia Vogl, 'Let's Hang Out', Carpet tiles, vinyl, Velcro ; Photo ©2012 Peter Hope

Apart from this patronising we-will-take-care-of-the-poor-artists attitude the Catlin Art Prize has a lot going for it. Yes, it’s funded by a bunch of ‘specialty property casuality insurers’ – read: business men – but the people working for them know what they’re talking about and at the end of the day, they do help realise the ambitions of new artists by giving them a platform, visibility, and – alright, only two of them – some hard cash.

Justin Hammond, the exhibition curator and his assistants put some real blood, sweat and tears into selecting the artists – visiting nearly all of the UK graduate shows – and the result is a broad, exciting and visually enticing selection of new work. Aside from winners Julia Vogl (whose work remarkably makes a political comment about public spending) and Adeline de Monseignat (winner of the public vote prize), I developed a small crush on the following three:

Ali Kazim, 'Untitled (Heart)', Human hair, hair spray, display case, shelf; Photo ©2012 Peter Hope

Ali Kazim. His incredibly detailed and unbelievably life-like self-portraits, executed in a humble pigment on paper express a sense of understated talent and solid skill rarely found in artists these days. His sculptures made out of human hair are extremely delicate and intricate and look like they require the patience of an entire Buddhist monastery to produce.

Jonny Briggs. His brilliantly twisted photographs explore the relationship between parent and child. Using casts of his parents’ heads as masks, Briggs’ work re-evaluates the psychological boundaries between adults and children, and the inevitability of, to a certain extent, becoming what our parents are.

Soheila Sokhanvari, 'TPAJAX', Taxidermy, jesmonite, car paint; Photo ©2012 Peter Hope

Soheila Sokhanvari. Although using taxidermied animals in art is a bit like using foraged herbs on MasterChef (you can only do it so many times before it bores the main guys), Soheila’s work is both politically charged and aesthetically challenging. Her work on display at the Art Prize – a horse lying on its back holding a huge, partially deflated red balloon, is one of the main eye-catchers in the show.

Overall, the exhibition breathed vitality and a great sense of artistic freedom, which seemed unaffected (or perhaps fuelled by) the limited financial prospects available to these creatives. So yes, great show, but I stayed away from the foie-gras.

—Georgia Haagsma

(Image on top right: Adeline de Monseignat, Mother HEB Loleta, Vintage fur, pillow filler,glass, motor, wood, sand; Photo © 2012 Peter Hope)

Only in its second year, the Other Art Fair offers a selection of one hundred artists who do not currently have gallery representation the chance to exhibit their work. In turn, Londoners get the chance to ‘buy direct from the artist’ -- an alternative to the swanky international art fairs.  Other than not being gallery-led, the crucial difference between this and Frieze, The London Art Fair, or the Affordable Art Fair, is real pocket-accessibility; prices here begin at £50, so the average art lover is genuinely able to buy. In this case accessibility also relates to the Fair's target audience, in the sense that the artists are here, and they are happy to see you, in the London art scene with its widening cynicism and in-fighting.
 
Art fairs are tricky beasts though. Their downside is that there is always so much on display that the viewer suffers somewhat from sensory overload, and the format often does an injustice to the art works’ true value. And there’s another element particular to the Other Art Fair: pieces on display were chosen by the artists themselves as their best works, rather than being edited by a commercially-minded gallery. Artists are famously reluctant to sell certain works, especially their favourites, hence there is a interesting flavour to what you see here. 

Dan-Hillier, In the Town House1; Courtesy of the Artist and Ambika P3

One highlight for me was Marcel Ceuppens’s Everyman collection, a series of graphic, digital drawings in which a faceless businessman moves between equally homogeneous office blocks and stylised landscapes. There is a strong Magritte influence here, but it conveys the terminal sense of isolation felt as a worker in a big city – and, in a trite kind of way, as an artist in an art fair. One work, The Marketing Department, shows the faceless protagonist figure duplicated and marching with a briefcase reminiscent of that which holds the annual Budget, another ironic poke at the banker’s expense.

Another recommended find was Mark Powell’s selection of biro portraits of ageing faces on vintage envelopes. These intricate works convey a duality between the stories once contained within the envelopes and the personal histories lived. These kinds of works tend to get engulfed by louder, gimmicky works within the bustle of the fair, but to me Powell was of the most technically accomplished artists on show.

Lennie Lee; Courtesy of the Artist and Ambika P3

The Other Art Fair fills a gap in the growing fair market, which has proselytised much in the same way that music festivals in the UK have in recent years. There’s also a bit more fun to be had with the selection of works, and you’ll find everything here from elaborate Arabian cityscapes to a meta-art fair, to interactive six-foot models of masturbating giraffes. Most of the works, though, are quite forgettable, as is its format, making this, perhaps, just an Other Art Fair. 

—Alex Field

(Image on top right: Ilona Szalay, Hide; Courtesy of the Artist and Ambika P3)