SOLO CONTEMPORARY Award 2024

British Art Fair SOLO Contemporary Artist Award 2024 - Winner Abe Odedina shown by Virginia Damtsa and the African Art Hub.

SOLO CONTEMPORARY Curator Zavier Ellis awarded a prize, sponsored by Winsor & Newton and Contemporary Art Academy, for the best artist in the SOLO Contemporary section of British Art Fair 2023. The winner - chosen by a panel of experts, was Abe Odedina, presented by Virginia Damtsa and The African Art Hub.

The prize was awarded on Friday evening, and kicked off our wonderful Friday Late, which featured the ‘Meet the Artists’ event, where many artists attended to discuss their work with visitors.

You’ll find Abe Odedina’s work in the SOLO CONTEMPORARY section on the second floor of Saatchi Gallery at Stand SOLO 10, a project that launched in 2022 where cutting edge galleries and dealers exhibit a set of works by one star of the contemporary art world. A Ramsay Fairs initiative, curated by Zavier Ellis, SOLO is a continuation of British Art Fair’s founding principle to champion British art and artists. ⁠SOLO CONTEMPORARY has expanded this year to include SOLO Curated - together the two zones highlight the diverse and vibrant nature of contemporary painting in the UK today. Selected and curated by Zavier Ellis, the artists in SOLO Curated represents the dynamism that continues to evolve within contemporary British painting.

Abe Odedina, The Entomologist (Man drawing insects), 122 x 80 cm, 2024, Acrylic on Plywood

Matthew Collings, Picasso in the studio with tubes of paint and pots of brushes thinking of a looming death skull and portraits of friends he painted in the 1930s, 2024. Oil on canvas, 90 x 90 cm. A Modest Show

A Modest Show

Works by the renowned author and artist Matthew Collings. This painting was collected from the South of France a few days before British Art Fair.  Read Collings' own account of the work and the trip here: Matthew Collings' text on the Picasso painting

Kay Le Seelleur Ara, Restricted Movement, 2024, Acrylic on Board, 46x52cm.
Ruup & Form, SOLO Contemporary

Ruup & Form
Kay Le Seelleur Ara is a prolific painter whose provocative and visionary painting showcases sharp humour, incisive explorations of gender politics and often autobiographical elements pulling on a wide range of experiences. Her work is anarchic, humorous, and sometimes shocking, yet always brimming with character.

Her mastery of line is evident not just in her drawings but throughout her paintings as well. Colour, shape, and text dynamically interact across her canvases, while stories unfold within an assortment of recycled frames. Each piece is complemented by a witty and considered title, offering another glimpse into Kay’s inventive mind.

James Vaulkhard, The Fisherman, 2024. Oil on canvas, 150 x 100 cm.
Guerin Projects, SOLO Contemporary

Guerin Projects

James Vaulkhard's works are inspired by his life in Nairobi, Kenya, where he spent his childhood and formed lifelong relationships with the local people, and a love of nature and the Kenyan landscape.

Trained as a classical portrait painter, his work emerges as an amalgamation of classical techniques intertwined through experimental visual expressions. Blending past with present, tradition with innovation, Vaulkhard invites viewers to pause and reflect upon the beauty that permeates both the natural world and the human experience.

Gavin Nolan 'Skim (Her Brave Bow to Harp)' 2024 Oil on linen 30x25cm
Charlie Smith London, SOLO Contemporary

A portrait of the great 20th century artist Barbara Hepworth

Florence Hutchings, 'The Kitchen Sink II', 2020 Oil, collage, oil bar on canvas 190x150cm
Union Gallery, SOLO Contemporary

Abe Odedina, The Son of the Soil, Acrylic on Plywood, 50 x 30 cm.
Virginia Damtsa and The African Art Hub, SOLO Contemporary

Virginia Damtsa and The African Art Hub

Abe Odedina’s artworks are a testament to the universality of the human experience, weaving the poetry of life with everyday miracles. Drawing inspiration from Haitian Voodoo practitioners, painters of the Sacred Heart, anonymous African craftsmen, and his daily walks in Brixton, Odedina’s work revives and deconstructs classic themes. By blending ancient Greek and Yoruba mythologies with everyday life, he sparks dynamic narratives that bridge different eras and cultures.

Odedina’s work is characterised by its exploration of common humanity through figurative propositions, reflecting his ideas, experiences and emotions. His unique sense of colour is influenced by his Nigerian heritage, his life in London and his time spent in Salvador de Behia.

Kate McCrickard, Le Phonographique, 2023 Oil on linen 100x80cm
Julian Page, SOLO Contemporary

Andrew McIntosh, The Old Sun Station, 2024 Oil on linen 150x200cm
James Freeman Gallery, SOLO Contemporary

Yuki Miyake, The Lynching, 2024, Oil on Canvas, 100x120cm,
White Conduit Projects, SOLO Contemporary