The 12th London ParallaxArtFair was held at the gorgeous Chelsea Town Hall, Kings Road. The Chelsea town hall has been described as a place lost in time, while everything else along King’s Road has progressed; the town hall provides a place to pause and admire the charm of the past.
As I walked through the long corridor to the main hall, I glanced above and admired these beautiful chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, adding to the historic charm of the building. 
There were over 200 established and emerging artists from around the globe showcasing paintings, sculptures, textiles and crafts at ParallaxArtFair. The fair is an artist led fair, where visitors buy directly from the artist or maker with no commission and in some cases no VAT, thus making the works affordable. The focus of the fair is to enhance the relationship between visitors and the exhibitors. The fair had a calm vibe, which provided an environment to engage with the art without interruption or the hustle and bustle of larger art fairs. 
Sculptures
I could not be helped as I was captivated by these larger than life works. I pondered and wondered whether these distinctive sculptures will be suitable for indoors or outside in the garden. To relieve myself of my mental dialogue, I asked the sculptor, if the artworks were heavy and to my amazement they were light in weight.
These unique works are made of aluminium and copper by Kevin Holland, who has been making sculptures for the last 20 years with numerous public commission works. For these unique pieces, Kevin drew inspiration from supermodels, pop stars, films and the media in general.
The sculpture below is my favourite piece. It reminds me of a strong masculine feminine character with symmetrical bone structure, high cheek bones and a full pout depicting intense beauty and an aura of authority and assertive which reminds me of Grace Jones.
Feminine Subjects
I am always on the lookout for art that depicts femininity and African inspired subjects and I found all of these in the works of Grazna Federico. Her work is inspired by her travels. I was impressed by the way she captures women of all races in different periods.
She has never been to Africa, but her portrayal of Massai women and women of different ethnicities draws you in, to experience the culture of these women. The facial expressions, especially the eyes of the women bore through my soul. I equally felt the serenity of the women with their eyes closed, what an amazing experience! Her use of vibrant colours in the works made the paintings even more alive.
Federico is from Germany and acquired formal qualifications in the Arts at 50 after a successful career doing technical drawings. RESPECT.
What is Art?
There were some works I did not understand, which is to be expected, as art is very subjective. That said, I was attracted to the works of Miro Brada below as the images and words provided a hint to its sociological, psychological and economic content, which was thought provoking.
I felt there was too much going on with the display of works by this artist and there was not a clear message from the imagery and texts displayed.
In conversation with the artist who studied psychology and economics and currently works a programmer, I wanted to find out what he was trying to communicate through his art and what message he hoped people will get from his works. He talked about his PhD research on originality, uniqueness and scarce resources. I was still left confused on what was being portrayed and the question of what is art came to the fore front of my mind. Perhaps these works challenging my notion of art, was art in itself .
Water Colours
I found the water colour works of Birima Aksuyek fascinating, with horses of different colours and sizes galloping into the centre of the paper towards each other. I love the clean transition between colours letting the pigments have free reign.
Birima Aksuyek is from Istanbul. He used to be a Vet and has been around horses all his life, treating them and looking after them at the races. He felt it was only natural he continued his relationship with horses, even after retirement, which he achieves through his paintings.
Art Observation
I enjoy watching and observing people looking and taking pictures of art works at art events. I am intrigued by their reaction showing different emotions, ranging from excitement to remorse, which I see in their body language and facial expressions. So I was enthused, when I saw the works of Petr Malina, which focuses on capturing the way people interact with art and appreciate creative endeavours at art exhibition and fairs in his paintings.
I like the subdue colours and the uncluttered imagery used by Petr. It allows me to engage with the narrative in his work without distractions in the paintings. The middle painting below is my favourite, which one is your favourite?
Abstract works
I was particularly struck by the abstract works of Mariya Naydis. Her oil on canvas paintings were alluring, dreamy and calming. All of her works showed a female form with two faces expressing different moods ranging from sorrow, love, fear and longing. Her contrasting colour palette is soft and the different forms shown in her works are hypnotic. Mariya Naydis is inspired by nature, animals and plants which you can see running through her work, by her use of earthy colours, which reminds me of the transition between seasons.
Mariya Naydis is from Ukraine and lives in Munich. This is the first time the unique works of Mariya Naydis is being exhibited in the UK. I had an interesting conversation with her representation, about the different unconventional areas artist show their work in Germany, one of them being the Doctor’s surgery. I am a big fan of exhibiting at alternative locations which I covered in a previous blog post on exhibiting art in unusual places. We also talked about how Mariya’s work will be great printed on silk scarfs.
You can see more of Mariya Naydis works at the Gabriel Fine Art gallery.
Detailed works
Moving along, I found the exceptionally detail works of Elena Abessinova very intriguing. I cannot imagine the amount of patience required to complete these elaborate pieces of still life and imaginary art. Elena drew inspiration from a piece of work she was commissioned to do, by a fruit and vegetable company, which you can see in some of her works.
Elena Abessinova was born in Ukraine and currently lives in Norway. She is a multidisciplinary artists, who studied music, piano and visual arts. Her artistic creativity involves illustration, graphic design, painting and drawing. Elena has an extensive CV with numerous solo and international exhibitions. Her works above has been selected for the prestigious current masters exhibition at the Museum of Fine Art in Las Vegas.
Well that’s it for now, I leave you with some other delights from the fair.
Artist:Hester Tatnell. Oil on Panel
I love the vibrant colours and the rough texture in these works
Artist:Eva Hoffman
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The next London Parallax Art Fair is in July 25 – 26. See you there:)
