Fair Director Highlights from Brussels 2023
Brussels Fair Director, Blythe Bolton, talks us through the must-see artworks of their 2023 fair. With a focus on the deeply personal nature of art, Blythe inspires us to find artworks that speak to our own stories and the people that shape us.
Blythe Bolton
Thursday 2 February, 2023
At the time of considering my highlights, we are just two weeks away from Affordable Art Fair Brussels 2023. As with any year, there are a litany of practicalities to finalise: has the sound system been ordered? What time are the signs arriving? How much wine do 14,000+ visitors drink? The list goes on.
When tasked with writing about art, it’s tempting to let this drop down my to-do list. My first instinct is to delegate. I could share a list of standout artists with a more-than-capable colleague so that they can describe my excitement for me. However, to do so would be to misrepresent why art and culture must always be a priority. Talking about art is not something that should be assigned, shrugged off or, indeed, delegated. Art always has a message, and it’s always personal.
So, here are a selection of the artworks that I’m most excited to get up close to at Affordable Art Fair Brussels this February 8 – 12 2023.
INSIDE OUT, OUTISDE IN
In a fantasy world where inanimate objects converse á la Toy Story, I can picture these two stunning, emotive paintings by Charlotte Grevers and Matthew Frock hitting it off like an attractive couple over dinner. They have real chemistry together.
Both poetic on matters of hearts, homes and allowing paint the freedom to be itself, they’re also curious about the connections between the outside and inside. And they have a wonderful way with red and green. It’s a match made in art heaven that I’d add to my collection in a heartbeat.
SOME THINGS BLUE
As Swedish artist Alfhild Külper writes on her Instagram, ‘I make physical representations of the soft spots in your mind’. A goal that she certainly succeeds in as there is a desperately despairing corner of my mind marked ‘The Politics of Bodies’ that resembles this arresting textile of Alfhild’s tumbling symbolic figures.
Similarly, Samantha Michell’s face-shielding figure, with its knotted intersecting limbs, feels full of that sorrowful struggle. Both enchantingly sensuous yet traumatically tangled, these textural works are sure to be worth a trip to see in the flesh.
PINK PERFECT PINK
Blossom or baby, candy or coral, whichever shade you prefer, pink is the Tom Hanks of the artists’ palette. It warms a scene and brings harmony to even an unlikely cast of colours.
In this selection, it has a starring role in the backdrops Theofilis Tetteh’s mighty bright portrait and Hüseyin Taskin’s goosebump-giving sunset. It performs equally heroically in Manfred Binzer’s dynamic abstract work, street artist SVEN’s ‘Step’. I’m excited to welcome fair newcomer, Daniel Engelberg, with his wall objects that embrace a slick, pick-up-sticks third dimension.
POCKET FRIENDLY PEARLS
Here are a trio of artworks that stood out not only for the quality of the artistry but also for their attractive price tags.
A dynamite combination of materials, the rawness and sophistication of Marjanka Jonkers’ ‘Tectonics Series’ is certain to be even more invigorating in real life. Two Scandinavian artists evoking spine-tingling sensitivity in their works are watercolour painter Anna Aström and photographer Søren Lynggaard Andersen, whose ‘Curtain’ artwork work was my top pick of our last Amsterdam fair. He’s certainly one to not to miss.
UNDER COVERS
Anyone else have a habit of longing for the summer sunshine during the darker winter months?
These three works inspire me to reframe thoughts on winter and challenge me not to wish it away. The drifting contours in Giuseppe Amadio’s minimalist abstract artwork sing of snow’s elegance. Gregory Valentin’s hazy blue of ‘Lumiere #1’ is inspired by Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s ‘Voyage au bout de la Nuit’, and emerges to soothe us with a whisper of ‘close your eyes a little longer.’
IF I COULD ONLY HAVE ONE…
The artwork I’d choose to take home this February would be ‘Sea of Memory’ by Otohito Moriyasu.
I had two grandfathers. Both very different, both much loved. One, a doctor, adored the sea and Shakespeare. The other, who passed away at New Year this winter, was always happiest surrounded by metal in his dark garage. And yet, he brought lightness everywhere he went. Whether we’re making it or cherishing it, art always has a way of holding feelings we don’t know how to express with words. Art anchors our homes to the stories and people that make us uniquely us.
As I said at the beginning: it’s personal.
I hope you find art at our fair that speaks to your story too. You’ll find me and the team at Tour & Taxis from 8 – 12 February 2023.
Main image: Manolo Chrétien, ‘EN-VOL’, Technique mixte sur toile, 89cm x 146cm, €4900, Galerie Isabelle Laverny
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