21 – 25 January at Business Design Centre in Islington.

Forget Hogmanay, it’s arguable that the commercial art scene in London doesn’t really get into its new-year gear until the London Art Fair comes to town, showcasing contemporary and twentieth-century artworks from around the globe. As ever, there’s plenty of Sussex-related art to look forward to seeing if, like us, you enjoy picking out artworks and stands connected with our neck of the woods.

There are two Sussex-based galleries showing this year, both of whom are seasoned LAF veterans. In 2025 Julian Page Projects took over the space in Chichester that was for many years run by Candida Stevens, holding a succession of fabulous shows in 2025. Next up at JPP is a show by Newhaven-based Abigail Norris (Ghosts in the Nursery, Feb 5 – March 28) whose disarming, subversive sculpture installation was one of the highlights of last year’s fair. That’ll be a hard act to follow, but you can expect prints by Hockney, Freud, Hanselaar et al. 

Krane Calman Brighton, affiliated to but very different from the long-established Brompton Road institution, ran a slick photography gallery in the Brighton’s North Laine for many years, where they exhibited the likes of ROSA #15 cover artist Simon Roberts. In recent times they have shifted to a more peripatetic model, operating from a variety of locations, largely in Brighton and London, generally showcasing up-and-coming young British artists working in the underdeveloped fine art photography market. At this year’s Fair, they will be displaying works by the photographer and social documentarist Chris Dorley-Brown, from his excellent series Near Dark.

London Art Fair is very much an international affair, but you won’t get very far without spotting work by a Sussex-related artist, alive or dead. Ivon Hitchens lived and worked in a caravan on Lavington Common, near Petworth, for the last four decades of his life. You’ll see several examples of his work at this year’s edition, for example at Jenna Burlingham and Osborne Samuel. The one that stands out for us is his 1966 abstract landscape Selsey Composition, shown by Alan Wheatley, a riot of reds, yellows, greens and blues. Another twentieth-century artist you’ll recognise, working in a more limited yellow-blue palette, is Duncan Grant, whose 1950 crayon drawing Circular Abstract is shown by Harry Moore-Gwynne. At Gerrish Fine Art, you’ll catch a fine Paul Nash still life in oils, Dahlias, painted in 1927 while he was living in Iden, near Rye.

There’s no shortage of contemporary artists on show, either. Grayson Perry, of course, is based in East Sussex, and Castlegate Gallery, coming all the way down from Cockermouth in the Lake District, have promised at least one work by the national-treasure potter-artist. We can be more specific about the work on show by three other contemporary Sussex artists: Long & Ryle have long represented the Rye-based painter Nick Archer, and are showing his 2025 exuberantly hued mixed-media landscape Warmer Waters. Beaux Arts, from Bath, will display a watercolour nude, part-hidden in a tigerish camouflage background, by Brighton-based Graham Dean, titled Emerging. Our favourite, though, is an archival C-type print of a collage by Emily Allchurch, who splices together hundreds of photograph fragments to produce sumptuous landscapes, with a modern twist, incorporating contemporary signage, architecture, and social detail inside the compositional logic of the old masters. James Freeman is showing her 2025 work The Six Seasons – Autumn (After Breughel). Not to be missed.

Plus, we are keeping a keen eye out for botanical art at LAF26 ahead of the launch of ROSA Botanical Art Fair, to be held 1-4 May 2026 at West Dean. Look out for William Nicholson’s Pink Cattleyas, 1931 to be shown with Austin Desmond, one of the ROSA Botanical Art Fair’s exhibiting galleries. This Bloomsbury gallery specialises in Modern British art and can be relied upon to bring a first-rate selection by ModBrit artists such as Prunella Clough, Roger Hilton, Ivon Hitchens, Fay Godwin, Peter Lanyon, F. E. McWilliam, Paul Nash, William Nicholson, Victor Pasmore, Keith Vaughan, John Wells, Gillian Wise and Alfred Wallis. Other botanical highlights include works by Sophie Crockett, showing with Art-Movement whose work combines magical realism, folk art and flora. And there’s also Fritillaries (1994), a delicate watercolour and gouache (19 x 14) by Mary Fedden on show with Freya Mitton. Look out for the desert landscapes by Alessandra Risi with The African Art Hub.

ROSA is pleased to be a partner with London Art Fair.  We promote ROSA Magazine to the fair’s visitors along with our events: Sussex Craft Week (20-28 June),  ROSA Botanical Art Fair (1-4 May at West Dean) along with our new cultural map of Wealden District.  We are here to promote brand Sussex in culture and the arts on a national level.  Join us at London Art Fair this year with a special 20% discount on ticket prices by using the code ROSA20. Book tickets here.