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START ART FAIR: A FAIR TO REMEMBER Dates now confirmed: Wednesday 21- Sunday 25 October 2020

PRESS CONTACT: Carû Sanders T +44 (0)7834 351 297 caru@carusanderspr.com

ILLUMINATI NEON, Rainbow Queen, 2020, Giclée fine art print handfinished in gold and jewels, 85 x 65 cm

August 2020

LINCOLN TOWNLEY, Bankers Eclipse, 2020

NAOMI WALLENS, Bad Ass, 2017

START Art Fair is a global gathering of artists at Saatchi Gallery this Autumn

START Art Fair is pleased to announce that it is to go ahead as planned, confirming its presence as one of the only fairs to take place in London this autumn. Faced with the impact of COVID-19 START Art Fair and Saatchi Gallery are determined to play their part in getting the art world back in business in a safe manner. START’s seventh edition will open at London’s iconic Saatchi Gallery between 21 and 25 October 2020. The fair will present a programme of gallery and artist exhibitors complemented by innovative START Projects.

START will actively implement social distancing as well as a full range of sanitary protection measures that will be put into place. All measures at START Art Fair will reinforce the safety of exhibitors, visitors and service providers in strict compliance with the instructions of the British authorities. They are dedicated to working to ensure the best exhibition conditions for gallerists, staff and visitors.

Specialising in emerging talent from around the world, START Art Fair will present the works of painters, photographers, sculptors and makers from around the world. Many will represent themselves, others with galleries. Together they will combine to showcase a compelling survey of seismic art scenes and global developments from around the world.

In addition to START Art Fair, Korean Eye’s 2020: Creativity and Daydream exhibition will travel from The State Hermitage in St Petersburg after a six-month stay. The show will feature a wealth of emerging and established talent from South Korea, whose use of unusual art materials in their work, (think soap, old television sets and human hair to name a few) has made them one of the most exciting and innovative contemporary art scenes in the world.

Start Art Fair was founded in 2014 by collectors and philanthropists, David and Serenella Ciclitira. Seasoned travellers and art collectors, David and Serenella travelled the world, discovering new artists and galleries. After establishing the Global Eye Programme in 2008, an initiative that includes books, exhibitions and art awards, they believed a new kind of contemporary and global art fair could exist within the British landscape, one that could be new and relatable, ground-breaking and commercial, edgy and established.

START Art Fair was created to be an inclusive international platform where emerging and established artists can showcase their work. In seven years, the fair itself has helped springboard a wealth of exciting young talent from all over the world. Previous visionaries to have headlined have included Liu Bolin, Teamlab and one of the most colourful young artists working today, Philip Colbert.

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Renowned globally for their prolific immersive productions, Teamlab selected START Art Fair to debut their imaginative digital cosmos in the UK. Liu Bolin - whose moniker may be the “Invisible Man,” but his indelible impression on contemporary art has remained anything but - created a new performance to enthrall and excite visitors becoming an established name on the world stage.

Philip Colbert’s showcase at START was the prequel to a whistle stop tour of the Far East, Frieze LA, Russia and Switzerland, where his ambitious installations and parallel Lobster universes would feature on the side of underground trains and as projections onto skyscrapers as well as museums.

David Ciclitira explains that all participants were keen for the fair to go ahead as planned in the physical world. “The virtual fairs were a good temporary solution and were relatively successful as it was an exceptional moment when the public was confined indoors and the world was at a standstill, so people had the time to spend going through all the online viewing rooms…. but it is not a substitute.”

START Art Fair Exhibitors 2020START Art Fair is truly global in ambition and representation and this is fully represented by the portfolio of talent. As efforts to contain the effects of Covid-19, millions of us will remain on our own turf this year, although this is a global art experience that aims to transport visitors to far-off lands.

As for some of the fair’s cutting-edge galleries, makers and bright young things, they welcome back repeat exhibitors, including Nat Bowen who had her debut at START 2019, the hot-to-trot resin artist who has created a new body of mesmerising work. The glamorous art star applies her sensory techniques and visual language of light and space has been in-demand under lockdown, with collectors from New York, Europe and the Far East snapping up her work. She's saved many of the stand-out artworks for START Art Fair.

Figurative portrait artist and art provocateur Lincoln Townley will return for another lap of honour. The former BAFTA artist in residence is so in demand that he sells at blue chip prices and has his own Chelsea and Manchester luxury apartment galleries where collectors can live with the work before they buy. Neon artist Illuminati Neon, whose punk-fuelled pieces incorporate neon and slogans and genuine scene artefacts and memorabilia passed down to him by some of his most celebrated bandmate friends.

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NAT BOWEN, Spectrum, 2020, Epoxy Resin On Acrylic Sheet, 150 X 180 cm / See You in the Bazaar, 2019, Epoxy Resin on acrylic sheet, 120 x 120 cm

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DAVID MAGEE, Natural Mystic Study #1, 2018, Archival Pigment Print, 75 x 88 cm

Last year’s winner of the 2019 Ciclitira Prize and post-graduate from The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, Lucy Morrish is an iconographer and miniature painter. Her classical works will feature with prominence once again at Saatchi Gallery this Autumn. At the other end of the spectrum, Naomi Wallens is as unflinchingly avant garde a disrupter as it gets, channeling Allan Jones-style pop, rock ’n’ roll, street art and fetish through her customised furniture and paintings. UK’s Thomas Spencer Gallery will present the art of Patrick Church, an exciting young US based Brit, whose work bears traces of his fellow New Yorkers, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.

The Emerald Isle will be represented by acclaimed photographer David Magee who will display his series of enchanting land and seascapes.

Tech-wizard-turned-artist, Phillipp Humm is from Germany but resides in London, and has undergone a huge professional transformation in recent years. From brokering billion-dollar deals with telecom giants to creating waves in the art world, MAH Gallery will present a new collection of oil paintings as the follow-up series to his 2019 art film set in Sillicon Valley of Goethe’s Faust, starring Stephen Berkoff.

Revati Sharma Singh lives in London but the energy in her work is powered by the colour of the cities and regions of her birthplace, India.

Representing the Far East, Jade Flower Gallery from Seoul will present a selection of South Korean artists. Founded by Yang Okkyung, to develop the idea of 'imagination linking’, the concept reflects the gallery's goal to forge links between the ingenuity of its artists, collectors and audience. From South Korea, Shin Eunhyue will present pictorial narratives of the architecture, music and the stories she wishes to present through her work. Also presenting at START as part of their strategic dedication to promoting the vision and appreciation of South east Asian art globally, are Premium Pages Collective and One East Asia, two separate Singapore-based galleries and art management organisations.

Shtager Gallery, founded by art consultant, curator and gallerist Marina Shtager in St Petersburg (Russia) will also return to the fair to showcase their innovation. Channelling Monet and Gaughin, Irena Prochazkova, lives in Prague and infuses her work with the boldest of primary shades to capture her travels on canvas, depicting invigorating and colourful scenes. Czech-born Marek Boguszak will show his immense technical prowess via the whimsical landscape

photography that is his prime domain. Meanwhile Daniela Raytchev is a London-based Slovakian/Bulgarian figurative multi media artist who will showcase new works, based on her perception and understanding of race, gender and sexual equality.

Francesca Borgo will present her ethereal abstract paintings while fellow Italian artist Marco Barberio will take visitors on a visual tour through urban landscapes, reminding us of the pre-Covid energy that pulsated through cities around the world.

Spanish artist Pedro Merry will return for the second year to START. The artist emerged from the world of professional motor racing to create his mixed media collage works which explore the relationship between human beings and machines. Portuguese artist Pedro Sousa Loura will exhibit his Mondrianesque geometrical artworks created during lockdown and Mexican artist Erika Navas, who trained under Karl Lagerfeld at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (where she now lives) will exhibit her figurative nude paintings. Norwegian artist, Marit Geraldine Bostad explores the Nordic Colour tradition in a bold new direction, blending tone to tone pastels with sparks of fluorescent, as a transcription of her own personal psychic state onto the canvas.

Representing North East Africa and the Middle East is Egyptian-born Hayam Elsayed whose paintings of women explore identity and complex issues through her work. Elsayed’s oil paintings represent a diversity and an appreciation of female subjects of all persuasions and cultures, in many ways echoing Frida Kahlo’s themes of introspection and the female body.

Stephanie Unaeze is a Nigerian female Illustrator and Painter who creates wonderful and whimsical pieces, often dealing with femininity and a divine spirituality. South African painter Jennifer Morrison will showcase large vibrant pieces that explode with colour.

From the Americas, Brazilian photographer Eurivaldo Bezerra will allow the viewer to travel the world via his lens. The photographer produces thought-provoking from around the world, images of the people of India or the landscapes of Iceland. Columbian photographer, Roberto Lombana, will present a series of images, exploring urban and natural land- scapes. Meanwhile, American-Iranian artist Fara Thomas will exhibit her vivid, abstract and colourful paintings.

START Art Fair is a five-day event that features booths, projects and presentations, all manners of contemporary art and ground-breaking conceptual and stylistic content from around the world. Collectors and culture seekers will discover a curated collection of 21st century art, design and decorative arts. With guest installations, curated projects and art with an achievable price tag to the reassuringly expensive, this annual event is as global as it gets. Vibrant and global, START Art Fair 2020 will be the art fair to remember.

Press Information

VIP Private ViewWednesday 21 October & Thursday 22 October 2020

Public OpeningFriday 23rd - Sunday 25th OctoberTo allow social distancing we have allocated three timed sessions dailySession 1: 11am - 1pm

Session 2: 1pm - 3pm

Session 3: 3pm - 6pm

Location Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s HQ King’s Rd, Chelsea, London SW3 4RY

Tickets www.startartfair.com

Nearest Tube Sloane Square

STEPHANIE UNAZE, The Innocent 2 - Black Boys Don’t Cry, 2020, Acrylic on Canvas , 100 x 90 cm

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Notes to editors: Saatchi Gallery

COVID-19:A message from START’s Founders:

Serenella and I are commited to playing our part in supporting artists and galleries and in getting the art-world as a whole back open for business. 2020 has been a challenging year globally, it is a time when we must adapt and innovate, we must come together united for the greater good of all our fellow artists and galleries. Much of the work presented at the fair this year will have been made during lockdown, we are looking forward to seeing these new works and to purchasing pieces to add to our personal collection, as Picasso said after WWII “I didn’t paint the war but the war is most certainly in my paintings”. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected.

- David and Serenella Ciclitira

About START Art Fair:In seven years, START Art Fair has helped springboard a wealth of exciting young talent and is now arguably the most international of contemporary art fairs with galleries and creatives from every continent, the event is widely known for showcasing tomorrow’s stars.The fair continues to act as a snapshot of new art from around the world in an intimately sized event with the aim to help navigate critics and collectors through the rapidly growing geographical expansion of the art world. In response to COVID-19, 2020 will see the fair propelled into the digital world. START will become the art world’s leader in PHYSIDIGITAL. Hosted in London’s Saatchi Gallery to a select group of collectors and online via START’s website and through a variety of Social Media platforms. START remains an independent art fair, with a global audience. Complementing START’s ethos of presenting up and coming artists and galleries are a series of curated

projects that reflect the Fair’s global agenda. This year START Projects include London based Nat Bowen, Prince’s Foundation graduate and winner of the 2019 Ciclitira Prize Lucy Morrish as well as Creativity and Daydream. Korean Eye 2020 which has been expanded and will occupy the entire top floor of Saatchi Gallery, the exhibition joins START directly from its extended residency at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. The entire START team looks forward to START 2020 at Saatchi Gallery and to this year’s fair being hugely successful in spite of adversity.

About Korean Eye 2020:Creativity and Daydream KOREAN EYE 2020, contemporary Korean Art: Seven years ago, START art Fair was born out of the Global Eye Programme, an initiative founded to nurture emerging international talent and to present artists on a global stage. Korean Eye 2020 sponsored by Hana Bank, marks the programme’s 10th anniversary and a small teaser exhibition was part of START 2019. Due to Covid-19 Creativity and Daydream, opened digitally in late March to great acclaim at the

State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, has been viewed online by more than 35,000 people and has been extended by more than two months. The State Hermitage museum and the Creativity and Daydream exhibition will re-open to visitors on 15 July. Following the exhibition’s success, we will include additional artists and artworks to bring it into START 2020 before it opens in Seoul later this winter. The accompanying book edited by Serenella Ciclitira and published by SKIRA will be launched at the fair.

About PCA:In 2008 David and Serenella Ciclitira founded Parallel Contemporary Art (PCA) and teamed up with Saatchi Gallery to launch the Global Eye

Programme. As passionate art collectors, they felt strongly that trips to Korea had opened their eyes to a new emerging art world that they both wanted to focus on in more depth. Their idea was to provide a platform to contextualise this work by publishing books that would document particular movements and scenes in Greater Asia. It was a natural step from that to then stage exhibitions that focused on some of the artists in the books. The programme additionally aims to develop arts infrastructure in Asian territories where this is lacking, in order to provide artists with the platforms, support and recognition that they need to develop their careers. To date the Global Eye Programme has staged more than 35 exhibitions and will publish its 9th book with SKIRA this year.

About Saatchi Gallery:Since 1985, Saatchi Gallery has aimed to provide an innovative platform for contemporary art, presenting work by largely unseen young artists or by international artists whose work has been rarely or never exhibited in the UK. Charles Saatchi’s first show in 1985 at Boundary Road, a converted paint factory, presented works by Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Cy Twombly, today recognised as among America’s greatest artists. In 1997, ‘Sensation: Young British Artists’, attracted a record-breaking attendance for a contemporary art exhibition in the UK. In 2003, Saatchi Gallery moved to County Hall, the Greater London Council’s former headquarters on the South Bank. It is now located at the iconic 70,000 square feet space in the Duke of York’s Headquarters in Chelsea, London. The audience, built steadily over the past 35 years, now exceeds 1.5 million visitors per annum, with over 5,000 schools visits annually and over 6 million followers on social media.