Eight of the best artists to check out at London Art Fair 2019

ARTCO Gallery (​Art Projects​) will present the work of ​Raphael Adjetey Mayne ​who combines traditional influences from his homeland of Ghana with contemporary portraiture, bringing a rich patchwork of African materials to the canvas. Mayne’s work is featured in a group exhibition of three artists born in Africa whose work explores the economic plight of the majority of children on the continent.

Featured in ​Photo50​, the Fair’s annual showcase of contemporary photography, South African artist ​Lebohang Kganye​ will show her film, ​Ke sale teng​, and photo series, ​Reconstruction of a Family​, in London for the first time. Through the use of silhouette cutouts of family members and props in a diorama, the film makes the point that family photos are more than just documentation; they are spaces for us to project new narratives and meanings based on our own memories and experiences.

New Art Projects (​Art Projects​) will show London-based artist and alumnus of Camberwell College of Art, ​Frances Wilks​. Wilks confronts the male dominance of Formula 1 by implanting herself within the work, replacing a man in every picture. Her eye-catching paintings are reminiscent of early Marlboro, Ferrari and Champion advertising with their vibrant colours and graphic compositions. They are, according to Frances, ’racing cars in capitalist colours’.

Anima Mundi​ ​(​Art Projects​) will stage a solo exhibition of London-based painter ​Rebecca Harper​, whose often large-scale, figurative works combine fiction, memory and observation to create scenes of everyday life in a cosmopolitan urban setting. Harper was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018, a critical platform that showcases some of the most dynamic work being made by emerging artists.

Like Rebecca Harper, Danish artist ​Katja Angeli, ​presented at Cob Gallery (​Art Projects)​, was also selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2016 after she completed her Masters at the Royal College of Art. Katja Angeli’s work draws on the tradition of collage within a digital context to create ambiguous, quasi-abstract compositions that suggest the movement of non-gendered bodies in space.

Yoon Ilkwon​, winner of the 2019 Solo Award TM from Chiara Williams Contemporary (​Art Projects)​ , utilises printmaking techniques to explore notions of permanence, memory and value, often inspired by his own childhood memories. Motivated by his concern with the negative aspects of our fast-paced society, the artist invites the audience to reflect on their own lives.

Lamb Arts (​Art Projects​) will present the work of Brazilian artist ​Tiago Tebet​ who is part of a new generation of emerging Brazilian painters. Tebet’s works reveal the artist’s dedication to the performatic process of painting; he plays around with techniques such as spackling and sanding, and tools like spatulas and trowels.