With the return of some sorely missed past exhibitors and a radical change to the floorplan, London Art Fair in 2026 is showing great signs of innovation and renewal. This year’s museum partner is the National Trust, bringing select objects from 2 Willow Road in London and The Homewood in Surrey, two 20th-century modernist houses featuring artists like Max Ernst, Roland Penrose, Prunella Clough, and Henry Moore.
The curated Platform section devoted to challenging materials, processes, and form have been moved to the entrance, giving stronger visibility to the artists of today. In doing so, the Prints & Editions section feels significantly more inviting, allowing its five exhibitors space to really shine around the Art Bar. Meanwhile, over at Encounters, women artists take the spotlight alongside a few male artists better known for other things like filmmaking and illustration.
These are my highlights:
Pantea Mahrou at Janet Rady Fine Art (stand E21)
Ni Xuemin, Cross The Boundary No.7, 2022, oil on canvas (Ripple Verse Gallery, stand E23)
Tamara Jovandić-Everson at MILADO Art Gallery (stand G49)
Marina Nimmo at CIRCLE Contemporary (stand G27)
Anthony Gross, Vineyard with Butterfly, etching, trial proof (Middlemarch Fine Art, stand G18A)
Philippe Charles Jacquet, The Three Brothers, oil on panel (The Catto Gallery, stand G25)
Claude Flight, Dome of the Rock, 1923, oil on canvas (Stow Art House, stand 49)
Bahareh Khomeiry, Hair as Freedom 02 – Trapped, 2025, glazed stoneware ceramic sculpture (TAG Fine Arts, stand 16)
Diango Hernández, Window XI, 2026, oil on canvas (Wizard Gallery, stand 56)
Bryan Kneale, The Brass Bedstead II, 1956, oil on canvas (Pangolin London, stand 9)
London Art Fair (21 – 25 January 2026) is at the Business Design Centre, London, https://www.londonartfair.co.uk/
Nigel Ip 
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