PIAF (Peckham International Art Fair)

Hidden treasures revealed

The new art fair taking place at a former industrial site in the creative quarter of Peckham, South London, is bringing together international and local projects during this year’s Frieze week. Frieze will attract about 60.000 people to London, and PIAF aims to take advantage of the capital’s expanded art audience and offer a different experience to its visitors. While major exhibitions tend to show the “elite end of the art world”, PIAF aims to stir things up by showcasing initiatives that are underrepresented by more mainstream, high-profile art fairs: 15 international galleries and 90 newer artists at the cutting edge of the global art market share the limelight, from grassroots local artists and initiatives such as Art in Perpetuity and Artist Studio Company, through projects from all over the world.

Co-founders Jon Kehoe and Katherine Viteri have researched for three years into the international art scene, visiting locations including Singapore, Italy, Spain and South America. The pair gathered a shortlist of artist-run projects which were not being supported yet, and came up with the idea of offering them a not-for-profit platform with as much exposure as possible.

Positioning the project in Peckham meant that attention would be drawn to an alternative kind of artistic centre in London. While gentrification is a phenomenon happening in many areas in London, Peckham is still a thriving hub, with Copeland Park – the Bussey building hosting around 200 grassroots artists.

Object-based displays are showcased alongside projects which are experiential: London-based performance art duo .2dot performance, for example, creates a large-scale sculpture during the fair through interacting with visitors; The Bright Room creates a photobooth in which visitors can have their portraits taken. Italian visual artist Francesca Checchi creates a unique serigraphy with the members of the public, which questions the reproducibility of the silkscreen process.

Collateral Drawing, a curatorial project by B E A S T O N projects, explores the relationship between finished artworks and the accumulative elements that feed into or result from their making. While exhibitions concentrate on artworks’ finished state – along perhaps with preparatory studies – Collateral Drawing explores the by-products generated from the making of an artwork, by showing the “collateral” alongside the finished work. This may take such forms as the stage setting, models or constructions which are created in order to facilitate the work itself; various means of recycling aspects of a practice; or the marks which result serendipitously. Whether dripped, scratched, taped, erased, smeared, hammered or edited, these marks in the studio are a physical manifestation of the paintings’ thoughts and ideas. The results hold a fascination of their own: an insight into the relationship between what is subconscious and conscious in the artist’s practice.

Open Doors Gallery, which provides a platform for photographers and storytellers, presents, among others, Los Angeles based photographers Jake Michaels and Brian Staley, who turn their eyes to the peculiarities of Los Angeles’ streets in a unique way; Italian artist Francesco Romero, with his fascination with the dystopic aspect of everyday life, captures decontextualised details, landscapes, and architecture standing alone as alien images.

Artist, writer and curator Cedar Lewisohn presents Ndungu SE15: using drawing and performance as media, Lewisohn is responding to artefacts from the World Cultures collections of Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM). His drawing of a West African Ndungu mask – a Janus- faced, judge or executioner, who looks both forwards and backwards at once – grafted together with the word SE15 for Peckham, forms the title of his exhibition.

These are only some of the projects presented at PIAF- a place where mind-blowing ideas thrive and where bold art can be created “out of nothing”. An extraordinary showcase of talent, which would be a shame to miss.

Exhibitors 2017: Alpine Road Gallery (UK), Apotheosis Art (USA), APT Gallery (UK), ArtGemini Prize (UK), ASC Gallery (UK), BEASTON Projects (UK), BrightRooms (UK), MOCA London (UK), Open Doors Gallery (UK), Switch (UK), Trove54 (UK/Ghana), White Counduit Projects (UK/Japan). Projects 2017: Cedar Lewisohn ‘Ndungu SE15’ (UK), Francesca Checchi “6X3” (Italy), Collateral Drawing (UK), Cork Lined Rooms (UK), António Branco and Riccardo T. ‘.2Dot Performance’ (Portugal / Italy) Exhibiting Artists: António Branco, Ash Eliza Smith, Biggs and Collings, Brent Sommerhauser, Caterina Lewis, Cedar Lewisohn, Dahlia Westmoreland, Daisy Cox, Darrell Hawkins, Darren O’Brien, Ernesto Canovas, Francesca Checchi, Gavin Turk, Gideon Appah, Gillian Carnegie, Glenn Brown, Gordon Cheung, Ian Howorth, Irvin Pascal, Jake Michaels, Jaykoe, Jeanette Gunnarsson, Maria Lax, Michael Ashcroft, Miho Sato, Patrick Quarm, Predrag Milosevic, Ralph Anderson, Riccardo Tarocco, Richard Bateman, Ryan Gander, Ryan Staley, Simon English, Simon Linington, Sue Arrowsmith, Tadashi Maruyama, Wieble Leister, Yifei Diao, Collateral Drawing Artists, ArtGemini Prize Winners and many others.

PIAF (Peckham International Art Fair) takes place at:
Copeland Park & Bussey Building
133 Copeland Road
London SE15 3SN
from the 30^th of September to the 5^th of October 2017
Sat-Thu 12.00 – 19.00
Advisory Board: Karen David, Juan Bolivar, Jimmy Lek
Founder & Operations Director: Katherine Viteri
Founder & Creative Director: Jon Kehoe
Fair Coordinator: Milagros Bedoya
Publicity and Communications Editor: Eva Klein
Sponsorship & Partners Liaison: Pernilla Iggstrom, pr@artpiaf.com