From 11 – 14 May, Photo London 2023 will stage its eighth fair at Somerset House, with a varied mix of 126 leading international galleries from 55 cities, alongside special exhibitions, such as one spotlighting this year’s master of photography, Martin Parr, and another dedicated to contemporary Mexican photography.
Ahead of the opening, our photography team whittle down the must-sees at Photo London, and around the city.
Photo London 2023: the highlights
TJ Boulting
Bug, 2023
Inspired by her obsession with Blobbyland theme park, and formative childhood holidays, Maisie Cousins created Walking Back to Happiness, a nostalgic, unnerving and curious series of AI works showing at TJ Boulting gallery. Also not to be missed is a site-specific installation of the works circling a sculpture presented in a cupboard-like booth at Photo London, a surprising and intimate space to discover.
The Photographers’ Gallery
Keith Vaughan, Highgate Men’s Pond Album, 1933
Two visit-worthy shows are currently on at The Photographers’ Gallery. First is the boundary-pushing Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2023, in which the award’s four nominees (Frida Orupabo, Arthur Jafa, Bieke Depoorter and Samuel Fosso) explore complex contemporary themes across race, ethics of collaboration, sexuality and history. On show on the floor below, ‘A Hard Man is Good to Find!’, a delectable survey of queer photographs of the male body created in London between the 1930s and early 1990s.
Robert Morat Galerie (Photo London)
Lena Amuat & Zoe Meyer, Mathematisches Modell Nr.77, 2018
For Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer, photography is an inventory for our visual understanding of the world. Collecting models, artefacts and specimens, the duo isolate the objects away from any historical or scientific fact in their mobile studio. The items become readymades under their seductive yet controlled perspectives. On show with Berlin's Robert Morat Galerie, is a solo booth of works from Amuat and Meyer’s series Artefakte und Modelle.
Homecoming Gallery (Photo London)
Cempasuchil, Pia Riverola
Homecoming Gallery will be showing Derrick Ofosu Boateng’s saturated and joyful compositions, Fenna Schilling’s mesmerising painterly collages, Pia Riverola’s nostalgic yet sensual responses, and the latest exciting addition to the gallery’s roster, Stig De Block, whose graphic perspectives document uplighting explorations. One not to be missed in terms of reading the room of contemporary photography.
Flowers Gallery
Edward Burtynsky, Sand Dunes #3, Sossusvlei, Namib Desert, Namibia, 2018, archival pigment print
For the renowned Flowers Gallery’s showing at Photo London, works by Edward Burtynsky, Elger Esser, Gabby Laurent, Janelle Lynch, Shen Wei, and Lorenzo Vitturi can be seen. While all dynamic in their own right, some interesting parallels can be drawn between the artists in terms of an awareness of our landscapes and natures, through the past and present. The body too becomes a vessel through which ideas are explored in contrasting ways, also with a connection to past and present.
Photo London 2023 runs from 11 – 14 May 2023 at Somerset House, London, with a preview day on 10 May. photolondon.org
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‘Concrete Dreams’: rethinking Newcastle’s brutalist pastA new project and exhibition at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle revisits the radical urban ideas that changed Tyneside in the 1960s and 1970s
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Mexican designers show their metal at Gallery Collectional, Dubai‘Unearthing’ at Dubai’s Gallery Collectional sees Ewe Studio designers Manu Bañó and Héctor Esrawe celebrate Mexican craftsmanship with contemporary forms
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At The Manner, New York has a highly fashionable new living roomThe Manner, a new hopsitality experience by Standard International in the heart of SoHo, triples up as a hotel, private residence, and members’ club
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Meet Kenia Almaraz Murillo, the artist rethinking weavingKenia Almaraz Murillo draws on the new and the traditional in her exhibition 'Andean Cosmovision' at London's Waddington Custot
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Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary artAs Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
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Doc'n Roll Film Festival makes its loud return to the UKThe 11th edition of the Doc'n Roll Film Festival celebrates music, culture and cinema from around the world
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Preview the Jameel Prize exhibition, coming to London's V&A, with a focus on moving image and digital mediaThe winner of the V&A and Art Jameel’s seventh international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition will be showcased alongside shortlisted artists
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Genesis Belanger is seduced by the real and the fake in LondonSculptor Genesis Belanger’s solo show, ‘In the Right Conditions We Are Indistinguishable’, is open at Pace, London
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Francis Bacon at the National Portrait Gallery is an emotional tour de force‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’ at the National Portrait Gallery in London puts the spotlight on Bacon's portraiture
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Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s ParkTwenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
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Meet Oluwole Omofemi and Bayo Akande, the founders creating a new art communityOluwole Omofemi and Bayo Akande, are behind Piece Unique, an artist agency that guides and future-proofs emerging artists’ careers
