Frieze and its pilgrims may have just left town, but art is making an indelible mark on London. The Fair and its counterpart Masters in total saw over 160 galleries from over 40 countries taking part. In the first few hours of the fair, New Delhi’s Nature Morte gallery sold 80 per cent of their booth, which included bamboo-silk hanging Siren (2023) from Sagarika Sundram’s as well as bronze cacti by Suhasini Kejriwal, which also appeared outside the tents for the culturally curious to admire. That’s not to mention all the global brands and businesses wanting to muscle on the art action — Dunhill and Deutsche Bank showing it’s cool to “do art”.
As art fever is at an all-time high, let’s take a look at what makes London cultural scene hotter than anywhere else on this planet. As a Southeast Londoner — a real one — I feel I can hold an opinion on this, having had four decades in this city and now having worked in strategy and access to visual culture for two of them. Samuel Pepys famously said, “once you tire of London, you tire of life”, and I have to say I agree. Whilst this decade started on Covid-shaky ground, plus the price of London’s cost-of-living rises along with Suella Braverman’s draconian rhetoric, the rise of London as a cultural superpower cannot be disputed.
When Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, stood on the podium at London Design Museum’s Rebel, celebrating thirty years of fashion with the British Fashion Council, she declared, “Creativity is our national superpower”. I have to say: our time is now. Galleries are the new catwalks and art the new model – the travelling Gucci show at 180 Strand fresh from Shanghai charts a 102-year history imagined by set designer Es Devlin — an artist who has collaborated with the likes of Dr Dre and Jimmy Lovine, created AI poems from tigers’ mouths in Trafalgar Square and has wowed Londoners with her Tate installations.
Institutions aren’t missing out on the action with Museum directors taking on the celebrity mantle — they’re the new rockstars in town. Nicholas Cullinan is the new darling of the art world after a momentous £53 million refurbishment of the National Portrait Gallery and dashing former politician Tristram Hunt holds court as Director of the V&A Museum, which has just opened a new wing in Stratford as well as hosting the blockbuster Chanel show charting the life and times of Coco.
London’s private art market is large larger than the rest of Europe’s combined
Our mayor Sadiq Khan may be in the doghouse for ULEZ, but as we scrap our cars, let’s also praise the fact that we have a GLA which invests so heavily in the education of our future culture and policymakers — our children. The Mayors’ East Bank London is about to see the biggest cultural investment since the 1850s, which will see new museums and universities line the river Lea. All eyes are on the capital. Anna Wintour and Vogue did, after all, choose us first to launch Vogue World’s epic theatrical celebration cum Met Gala.
Away from art fairs the capital is constantly bursting with cultural conversation and connection. My recommendations this month are to visit the iconic Serbian artist Marina AbramoviÄ’s solo show of performance art and installation at the Royal Academy (the first female to hold a solo show at the RA) or to delve into the choral music and film play of Sierra Leonian Julian Knxx at the Barbican. I’ll definitely be dragging my next Hinge date to meander through the public sculpture park curated by Fatos Ustek. Geeky is hot, right?
Even “non” spaces are getting in on the action — Claridge’s Hotel recently opened a public ArtSpace and Café in the heart of London’s Mayfair, currently showing Like Paradise, the brainchild of black curator Ekow Eshun, a new exhibition featuring artists like Frank Bowling, Miranda Forrester and Samuel Ross.
Historically and architecturally, London has always valued culture — the capital is bursting with more than 200 museums and 800 art galleries, most offering free admission. Conversely, in the private market, the UK remains the second superpower in the world, just behind the US, with 18 per cent of art sales globally. It is larger than the rest of Europe combined. Wider economic and political pressure has done little to dent sales in the UK, which held $11.9 billion in 2022. No wonder auction houses are sitting pretty with queues for Freddie Mercury around the block at Sotheby’s, where his trusty Yamaha baby grand piano from 1973 sold for a smooth £1.7 million.
Even Instagram says art is the new universal language. This past week, black British artist Lakwena’s joyful kaleidoscopic stairwell public installation of ‘Tender, Loving Care’ seeped into our feeds from Christie’s. Lakwena’s installation, she says, was a response to London — always changing but staying captivating, ever moving, enabling a living connection with art.
Artist studios, designers and AI creators have overtaken politics as the new dinner conversation. Businesses are investing in art for their walls to boost staff morale. It’s clear that art can enrich us, and we are thirsty to connect in our own creative endeavours.
I am ever captivated by London’s multicultural communities and unparalleled ability to fuse and cross-pollinate across other industries of fashion, music, and film to future map the art world and new communities. Stitching different worlds together, forging new conversations and creating new realities in our high low tribes. Nigerian artist and now treasured British artist Yinka Ilori is one of these examples traversing from our streets into galleries from his colourful chair installations on The Line to uplifting mental healthcare wards at Springfield Hospital with his mural — and now even adorning M&S shops.
Deputy Mayor of Culture for London, Justine Simons, says, ‘Culture is our superpower transforming lives and places around the world’ — time to wear our crown with pride.
