Meet our new Fair Director: Hugo Barclay

Our new UK Fair Director, Hugo Barclay joined the Affordable Art Fair team just before our Battersea Spring Fair. Now, with one under his belt and another fair coming soon (Affordable Art Fair Hampstead, 5 – 8 May), we thought it was time to give you a proper introduction. Hugo’s expertise spans the contemporary art, technology and sales sectors, with recent stints at London Art Fair and Artsy, as well as running his own art advisory agency ArtThou.

We’re thrilled to welcome Hugo to the team and can’t wait to see what he’s got in store for us! Read on to find out more about our new Fair Director, and his upcoming highlights…  

We’re so excited to have you join the UK team – and you already have one fair under your belt! What were your highlights from Battersea Spring 2022?   

Spending time getting to know our community of galleries and the wonderful Affordable Art Fair team. It’s great to join the company at a time where there seems to be a real appetite for buying art – and I loved seeing artworks travelling out of the doors to go to new homes. Battersea Spring was a great success, the energy was fantastic, so it’s nice to start on a high!   

What are you most looking forward to about this role?   

The mission of Affordable Art Fair is very close to my heart – to make owning and collecting art inclusive and accessible to everyone. I’m excited to build on the strong foundations of this team and work on a developing a more curatorial feel across our three annual UK Fairs.  

We’ve heard that you are fascinated by the crossover between art and tech – can you tell us more about that?

From my time at Artsy, and my involvement with different tech accelerator programmes, I’m fortunate to have had grounding exposure to how the tech industry works and in particular, how galleries can leverage tech to be of better service to their clients and artists. So I’m excited to see how I can bring that to the Affordable Art Fair community.  

With your international art industry knowledge, how do you think the UK art scene compares to other countries?  

There’s a huge market of commercial galleries in the UK. The UK has been the art centre of Europe for a while now and as some galleries close shop, new ones always crop up. Comparatively the UK is lucky to be gifted with great art schools, and decent funding opportunities for grassroots arts and culture, and despite the cost of living increasing, with some artists jumping ship to places like Leipzig, Mexico or Lisbon – it’s still a multicultural, thriving environment for artists.  

Which galleries are on your radar right now?  

I’ve been following the work of artists from Brook Street Gallery, Sierra Metro in Edinburgh, Claas Reiss, Lysenko Gallery, Cube Gallery, Annka Kultys and Blue Shop cottage, to name but a handful. Many of these will be at our upcoming Hampstead Fair in May, so be sure to come along!  

What is your approach to collecting art?  

I love buying art from living artists, and  am agnostic to medium – print, photography, painting, sculpture – it’s all in the mix. I’m particularly interested in artwork that explores cross cultural dialogue, and societial evolution, but I’m also prone to supporting emerging artists coming out of Scotland, as I’m currently based between Edinburgh and London. 

Our special 10th edition of Affordable Art Fair Hampstead is coming up (5 – 8 May). How are plans shaping up, and what can we look forward to at the fair?  

I’m so excited for the next fair in Hampstead, just a few weeks away! This fair will not only mark our return to the Heath after a two-year break, but it’s also the 10^th Edition of Affordable Art Fair Hampstead. We have over 100 galleries, including an exciting array of international exhibitors. We’re also joined by some exciting partners;  with a showcase of bright emerging talent from Made in Arts London and the Jackson’s Painting Prize, our Fair Charity Maggie’s Royal Free, and investment experts JM Finn – so there will be a  jam-packed programme of things to see and do in Hampstead. 

Thanks to Hugo for letting us into his world in his busy first few months as UK Fair Director. Be sure to come down and see his highlights at our 10^th Edition of Affordable Art Fair Hampstead, 5 – 8 May 2022. Click below to get your tickets and discover your next favourite artist.