Cathy's Art Diary

Disappointing version of this art fair at Woolwich Works showcasing contemporary prints. I say disappointing as I’ve been going for a few years and it’s getting a bit samey. There is interesting work there but it needed a bit more explanation and a change of presentation as it’s looking tired. I will also make my usual moan that bigger labels would help and not placing them so close to the frame that you can’t read them. That said I did have a great conversation with one artist who spotted me photographing this duck picture and explained the technique to me. Sadly so good a conversation that I forgot to note his name! There were some nice blocky prints of the South Bank by Paul Catterall who I always like and I loved Tobias Till’s dense map of London complete with now vanished buildings. It was a nice touch to include an interior designed space showing how the prints might work in your home. A nice trick in this new development. Closed 24 November 2024

A good edition of this print fair held annually at Woolwich Works. I always enjoy this show, not least because it is so close to home. I thought this year there was more curated areas and less dealers’ stands. There was a good cross section of work from very expensive works by the likes of Grayson Perry and Harland Miller to small works you could print yourself. There were also a nice range of demonstrations. Monoprints seemed to be very fashionable this year. Highlights included Nana Shiomi’s “Durer’s Law of Print Making - Two Rhinos”, as anyone who references Durer in a print is a winner with me, Hamish Macaulay’s tall seascapes and Kate Lewis’s pictures of flowers made up of words from newspapers. My favourites were the set of images of Venice by Peter Blake in his signature collage style. Closed 29 October 2023  

Eclectic fair at Woolwich Works of prints by contemporary artists. Pictures were shown in a mix of spaces for individual galleries and larger spaces for works curated from across the show. This gave you a chance to see an overview of work as well as delving into more pieces by particular artists. Sadly I didn’t manage to make notes and, as I am a bit behind with blogging, I don’t remember what I saw that well! Sorry! I do remember there being a lot of work based on maps, either reproducing them or printing on top like the one shown here. Annoyingly I can’t find it on the website so I don’t know who the artist is. Shout outs go to Rachel Clewlows for her imaginative alternative colour charts and Pag Morris’s exquisite pictures of deserted interiors. I also like the art historic approach of John Angus, reducing annunciation pictures to their basic forms, and Toby Holmes, with his reworking of Rococo portraits with sweet wrappers for their outfits. Closed 14 November 2022  ...

Enlightening online discussion organised by Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair looking at the role and important of traditional print studios. The talk brought together Vincent Eames, from Eames Fine Art that specialise in prints and Jason Hicklin, Artist and Head of Printmaking at City and Guilds of London Art School. Originally they had hoped to bring it from the City and Guilds print room itself but wifi proved a problem so instead they filmed that space and ran the event from the Eames Fine Art print room. They discussed how a traditional print room is set up with specific areas for each task around the edge and the presses in the centre of the room using the video to demonstrate this. Hicklin explained how this format has developed over time and is now accepted as the model for all food practice. He talked about how he teaches in the room, learning as much from the students as teaching them, and the benefits of this collaborative space. Eames explained the benefit to dealer o...

Fascinating online talk from the Woolwich Contemporary Print fair looking at art crime and what to be aware of when buying.   Will Korner of the Art Loss Register and Fred Clark from law firm Boodle Hatfield talked us through the different types of art crime pointing out it is not just the high profile thefts that might affect buyers but also fraud in the market and copyright issues. Clark told some interesting stories of cases that have dealt with for the street artists Stik around works which he had done for community projects turning up on the art market.   They outlined things to consider when buying art including using reputable sources such as art fairs which have been vetted, not to feel the pressure to by as it is a buyer’s market, to keep records of what you own and to ask questions, and as with many things in life if it looks to good to be true it probably is too good to be true.  

Cumbersome online exhibition for the annual Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair. I go to this show each year as I live in Woolwich and always enjoy it. It has a good variety of artists and is shown in a big space with a relaxed atmosphere but I am afraid I found their online version quite hard to navigate. It took me a while to realise there was a ‘walk round’ option and I didn’t find it that natural to navigate around however it did give you a chance to see works from a distance and to get some idea of relative sizes. There was a good section on the artists but that only seemed to show one picture by each of them and not to link to prices and pieces to buy. I found that in a different section.   I did like the curated selections such as Collectors Picks or the Lockdown 2.0 section as these gave more manageable numbers of works to look at with all the information in one place but it did leave you feeling you might have missed something, They are also running some interesting onli...