London Art Fair runs at the Business Design Centre in Islington from 20 to 24 January 2027, with a preview on 19 January.
London Art Fair was founded in 1989 and has opened the British art calendar every January since, in the Business Design Centre in Islington. Its subject is Modern and Contemporary British art set against work from further afield, and its position in the year is the whole of its argument: it is the first serious fair of the twelve months, months before the October week that the international trade flies in for. More than 120 galleries take stands.
A January fair sells differently from an October one. The buyers are largely British, they are not in a hurry, and they are looking at work priced for a private collection rather than for a headline, so the fair has become the place where collections are started rather than crowned. Its Museum Partnership brings a public collection in each year to hang alongside the trade, which is not something a purely commercial floor would do. A dedicated prints and editions section runs alongside it, and that is where most first purchases at a London fair are made.
The 2027 fair runs from Wednesday 20 to Sunday 24 January, with the preview the evening before on Tuesday 19 January. Sheffield Museums is the museum partner, and Lisa Anderson curates Platform, the section given to a single theme. Encounters, the fair’s section for contemporary and experimental work, changes its brief each edition.