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.
