The Affordable Art Fair started in 1999 with an incentive to make art collecting more accessible. By capping the prices of artworks at £7,500, the artworks are quite literally affordable, with many priced at just a few hundred pounds. The likelihood of walking out the door with an artwork in tow is substantially more feasible, and many people do just that. Each fair has its own art wrapping station in the corner, anticipating continual turnover over the course of the four-day event. While this particular edition is in Battersea Park, the fair occurs in 10 cities worldwide, including New York, Hong Kong, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, Singapore, Stockholm, Melbourne, Sydney, Shanghai, and Berlin.
We attended the private view on Wednesday, 8 March, and asked the audience what’s your hot take?
HOT TAKE 1: I find it difficult at fairs because it’s so much. I don’t look at it the same way I look at artwork when it’s in a gallery alone, or in a museum, where I step away to take it in more. Here, I view everything as a hobby first — because there’s so much. I’m not giving it the gravitas or the aura because there’s so much. I guess I just kind of zig-zag through…snakes and ladders kind of. If it doesn’t grab me, I’m just going to walk past.
HOT TAKE 2: What’s going on with ice creams? I’m seeing loads of ice creams everywhere. Am I missing out on why everyone’s doing ice cream, did I miss a memo?
Because I’ve been coming for years and years, obviously you see some old friends. Which is nice. But the evolution I would say, there are more American galleries represented this year and more German galleries. Whereas otherwise it’s lots of British-based. I noticed there being a different dynamism behind the artists they support.
Then you see some of the old-school galleries and you think okay, there’s definitely a sea change in the type of art people are interested in. More photography. There’s always painting, which is lovely, but much more mixed media. Probably a bit more humour in the art. Maybe that’s a sign of the times — going back to the ice cream.
HOT TAKE 3: I think it really depends on what kind of mood you’re in. Am I in a frilly mood, am I in a kitsch mood, am I in a corporate kind of tailored mood, am I going pattern, am I going monochrome, am I going block of colour — and I find when I’m going around art galleries — and I buy a lot of art — it depends on what mood I’m in. What resonates? I bought a painting purely because it has my surname in the photograph. It’s got nothing else to do with it! It’s just pure luck.
HOT TAKE 4: Nothing has grabbed me so far, and it’s all very, very similar.
HOT TAKE 5: It’s great. Varied, good price points. It’s great.
HOT TAKE 6: Nothing’s jumping.
HOT TAKE 7: Cutesy, generally.
HOT TAKE 8: A lot of it is the kind of stuff you would put in your holiday home. Not a lot of things you’d live with. Not many at all. I’ve not actually seen anything I’d buy. Nothing. There’s a lot of work on the walls to say that. But, it’s a great event. It’s necessary, because for a lot of people this will be a very big deal. For a lot of artists this is a first chance and so on and so forth. I think I’m seeing a lot of things that were painted while they were on holiday, or that they’re hobby artists, and that’s great and there’s a place for it. It’s all a bit like…pedestrian.
so it’s painted on holiday, for holiday?
Well, you said that, not me.
HOT TAKE 9: There are no Manolo Blahniks, there are no diamonds, there’s no Bentleys in the car park, and that’s interesting because the art world tends to attract people with lots of money, and I know a lot of those people and I’m not seeing them here. That’s interesting. I’m not seeing the kind of people who would say, “Oh I’ll take everything.”
HOT TAKE 10: The job here is to bang out a bunch of pictures at 500 quid. That’s fine, and that’s exactly what it’s for, but there are other exhibitions that you go where it’s actually about being there and making the contact and everything that goes with it and the clientele that you meet. You’re not meeting the clientele here that will come back spending 10, 20, 3o, 40, 50 grand with you.
HOT TAKE 11: We’ve been here an hour now, and I’ve seen one person I know. And that should say a lot, that tells me a lot, because none of my crew are here.
HOT TAKE 12: Some I would say was pretty much like what I saw in previous years, so not many surprises there, but some really good additions as well.
HOT TAKE 13: I come every year, so I’m quite familiar with the fair. There’s a very good variety of artists and styles, and price point as well. I think it’s quite similar [to previous editions].
HOT TAKE 14: I’ve only been here once as an exhibitor, but many times before as well. It’s very social, it’s fun, it’s entertaining with the artists. Private view is always good fun with the artists being here.
HOT TAKE 15: Pretty great. I haven’t been to this before so, it’s really inspiring, actually. Great to see so much work.
HOT TAKE 16: I found it quite exciting. I’ve been to a few art fairs and sometimes they’re kind of quite same-same. There’s a good mixture. Some kitchy stuff, as usual.
HOT TAKE 17: Never been here before. It’s a real pleasure to be here, for me. I haven’t been to see some art for sale for a long time. I’ve just had a birthday and I’ve got a little pot to buy myself a gift, and I’ve found something! Which is so exciting. It’s a real pleasure to be here, and it’s more exciting than I thought it would be. Some real sort of food for thought everywhere.
HOT TAKE 18: I’ve never been to the fair before. It’s phenomenal, I’m really enjoying it. So many different types of art; some I really like, some not my taste at all.
HOT TAKE 19: It’s amazing to see so much in one place that’s so different. Very cool.
HOT TAKE 20: I feel like it forces you to figure out what you like immediately, instinctively. In a gallery if I look around and think, surely I should find something , but you don’t always. But here I do. It’s up to you to curate it here.
HOT TAKE 21: We have been to other editions, we’re always very fond of some of the North London printmaker’s stuff. There’s a very good ballerina this year, and a velociraptor on a giant unicorn inflatable. What more could you want from the world? There’s definitely some new stuff, which is good to see. I don’t know if it might be a bit more painting.
HOT TAKE 22: What I thought was really interesting, was that different times we start at different entrances. So we went from “A” all the way down. The feeling was, I like the things I saw first more. Met some friends in the middle, and they said they’d started the other way round, and they say they liked what they saw first, on this side. I want to know if next time I start, is it with your eyes what they see first do they like that more? I don’t know.
It has to do with how you feel when you come in. Isn’t that it, like art has to talk to you? So I just mooch around, waiting to be spoken to by something. I find buying art lifts me, totally. You get on a roll.
HOT TAKE 23: We came last year or the year before. We got lost the first time we came here, through the park. I’ve got sort of half way around, and nothing grabs me. It’s also quite crammed in. It’s hard to look at something on its own and enjoy it and like it.
HOT TAKE 24: Some of the paintings look like they were painted for this exhibition, to sell, or make it sellable. Yeah I would prefer to see something like the artist would express themself more.
HOT TAKE 25: I like it. I feel like I’m seeing a lot of the same stuff, year on year. Same artists in the same places. But I just really enjoy the atmosphere.
HOT TAKE 26: I’m here to soak in the atmosphere and vibe and look at all the nice art.
HOT TAKE 27: Bit overwhelmed sometimes, as an artist.
HOT TAKE 28: Brilliant. I love the mix and I love that it’s not too much. Feels just right.
HOT TAKE 29: It’s a very decorative and attractive show.
HOT TAKE 30: The pictures we bought are contemporary, but they have a lovely sort of modern British feel, slightly vintage which is what I like. They don’t have any glass so all the light in our room won’t reflect onto the pictures. To me that’s very important.
HOT TAKE 31: Compared to the previous ones, it looks a little bit low key this year, I have to say. You can find some interesting pieces, but you kind of feel like you’ve seen it before.
HOT TAKE 32: You have to work harder to find the kinds of things you haven’t already seen before. There’s a lot of gimmicky stuff that you can just dismiss, but if you look closely, you find good work. So overall, it’s been better.
HOT TAKE 33: Sometimes you can hype something up so much that you forget about why you’re here. We’re here to see art, and so if you hype it up and have these people on stilts throwing confetti, it doesn’t necessarily help the art. You have to work harder at it. I’m all for working harder because the stuff I see then is more valid to me. I think in that way it’s not bad. I’m happy. I have my glass of wine.
HOT TAKE 34: I bought two works, so. One of them was a pair of birds and they were both boobies, so I bought a pair of boobies. The other one was a mushroom with a little guy that wore a hat that was a mushroom. It made me laugh, was very cute. What I didn’t buy is mainly related to budget, and not to dislike. I think to me, this time around really bright colours is what I need right now, since it has been winter. I’m drawn to bright things that make me feel like it’s bright again.
HOT TAKE 35: There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t speak to you, but I think that’s fine. I think that’s expected. It’s all about seeking out what does, and that’s what I like about it. Even if it’s only a small percentage that really speaks to you, it’s still worth hunting for. You just know – you can’t really put into words sometimes what pulls you towards a certain piece.
HOT TAKE 36: I think some of it can really sort of decorate people’s apartments. It’s affordable, obviously. I think it’s a brilliant event. I’m comparing it to the Frieze. I think they should make it more of a sort of event. A lot of people don’t know about this, so it needs to be more publicised.
HOT TAKE 37: Very different from last year. More abstract art. More colourful as well.
HOT TAKE 38: You have to do a bit of digging to find something you really like or you really connect with. I think there’s a lot of stuff that is quite commercial, or quite surface-level. Something that is quite bright or catches the eye. I have a bad term for it, I call it simple-minded art. Souvenir art, maybe. Art for people who maybe don’t look too far into art. I think this is an art fair that is not very elitist, so it’s more inclusive, and you feel like it’s more welcoming, so it is valuable in another way. But, I think you really need to do some digging.
I like the fact that everything’s within reach, that I can look at something and consider buying it. Other art fairs I go to, it’s way out of my league. I’m going to have to really sweet-talk the person to convince them to let me buy it, to place it in my collection. I feel like I’m being sized up, even if I have the money. This feels down to earth and like I could actually buy it. I think young collectors have a problem starting their collections. A lot of artists want to place their work inside a collection that already exists. How are you supposed to start it, you know? I think buying from auctions and buying from art fairs are good ways for young people to start collecting.
It’s like that thing of, when you’re applying for a job and they say you need work experience. How am I supposed to get work experience if you need to have it already?
For more information about the Affordable Art Fair, click here
