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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‘Nothing just because it’s beautiful’: Performance artist Marina Abramović on turning her hand to furniture designMarina Abramović has no qualms about describing her segue into design as a ‘domestication’. But, argues the ‘grandmother of performance art’ as she unveils a collection of chairs, something doesn’t have to be provocative to be meaningful
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A local’s guide to Los Angeles by defiant artist Fawn RogersOregon-born, LA-based artist Fawn Rogers gives us a personal tour of her adopted city as it hosts its sixth edition of Frieze
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Shakara is a stylish new addition to London's West African dining sceneShakara, a new Marylebone bar and dining room, adds to the city's ever-more impressive high-end West African dining scene
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'We need to be constantly reminded of our similarities' – Jonathan Baldock challenges the patriarchal roots of a former Roman temple in LondonThrough use of ceramics and textiles, British artist Jonathan Baldock creates a magical and immersive exhibition at ‘0.1%’ at London's Mithraum Bloomberg Space
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Discover Rotimi Fani-Kayode's fluid photographs of the queer male body, on show in London‘Rotimi-Fani Kayode: The Studio – Staging Desire’ at Autograph ABP celebrates the work of the Nigerian-born photographer
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Saatchi Gallery is in full bloom with floral works from Vivienne Westwood, Marimekko, Buccellati and more‘Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture’ at Saatchi Gallery, London, explores the relationship between creatives and their floral muses, and spans from fashion and jewellery to tattoos
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'I want to get into these images and perfume them': Linder's retrospective opens at the Hayward Gallery'Linder: Danger Came Smiling' gathers fifty years of the artist's work at the Hayward Gallery. We meet the punk provocateur ahead of her first retrospective
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Tasneem Sarkez's heady mix of kitsch, Arabic and Americana hits LondonArtist Tasneem Sarkez draws on an eclectic range of references for her debut solo show, 'White-Knuckle' at Rose Easton
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‘A call to action for more authentic expressions of working-class life’: a London show reframes working-class BritainLondon exhibition ‘Lives Less Ordinary’, at Two Temple Place, challenges age-old stereotypes
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‘Dr Tetris’ on the biggest ever iteration of the puzzle in LondonTetris comes to 360-degree, 23,000 sq ft, 16k LED screens in London; Craig McLean speaks to Henk Rogers, the man who’s kept the game alive
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Never-before-seen Barbara Hepworth works go on show in landmark exhibitionIn ‘Barbara Hepworth: Strings’, various Hepworth sculptures will be exhibited in public for the first time, at Piano Nobile, London
