What Sold At The London Art Fair 2026

From six-figure Paul Nash to ceramics, textiles and prints, the 38th edition of London Art Fair logged brisk buying for contemporary art and steady confidence in Modern British names

The 38th edition of London Art Fair closed on Sunday after welcoming more than 24,000 visitors, drawing established British collectors alongside buyers from Mexico, the USA and the United Arab Emirates. Contemporary work proved particularly strong in volume and buyer engagement, while Modern British and 20th-century works continued to command the highest prices.

Widely regarded as a bellwether for the year ahead, London Art Fair again asserted its place on the international arts calendar. Patrick Duffy, Associate Director of David Messum Fine Art, described the Fair as “an excellent litmus test for the year ahead”.

More than 120 galleries exhibited this year, spanning modern and contemporary art and 20th-century masters from the UK and around the world. Over 4,000 guests attended the Preview day alone, and exhibitors reported strong early sales.

So What Sold At The London Art Fair 2026!!

Contemporary art selling well, with confidence at the top end

While mid-range contemporary work sold well, Modern British artists and blue-chip stalwarts achieved the highest price points. Twentieth-century British art was in high demand, with several galleries making early sales.

Gerrish Fine Art recorded a stand-out sale of British Surrealist painter Paul Nash’s Dahlias (1927), fetching a six-figure price. The painting carries cultural provenance, having appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Dial M for Murder(pictured).

Galleries also reported healthy five-figure sales for female painters and a noticeable increase in visitors arriving with the intention to buy contemporary art, extending the Fair’s established Modern strengths. Across the Fair, many exhibitors achieved results for work by living artists.

Long & Ryle sold all works by Catalan artist Ramiro Fernandez Saus, with works up to the £37,000 mark. Gillian Jason Gallery, which champions women-identifying artists, saw strong sales of Emily Ponsonby, with multiple paintings sold at price points ranging from £4,500 to £18,000. The gallery noted increased interest following Ponsonby’s inclusion in the National Portrait Gallery’s Visitors’ Choice competition in 2025.

Large-scale painting also found buyers, including at Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, where a striking 200 x 270 cm acrylic and oil sticks piece by Nikoleta Sekulovic entitled Marie Spartali Stillman was placed for an undisclosed price (pictured).

Alveston Fine Arts reported successes across mediums, with individual sales reaching up to £12,500. Highlights included a painting by Freya Pocklington, ceramics by Vicky Lindo, and a tactile feline-inspired bench by Selby Hi, whose work utilises rug-punching techniques to transform furniture into zoomorphic fabric sculpture. Christopher Kingzett sold six paintings by Kate Giles at price points ranging from £8,000 to £10,000. Wizard Gallery sold Window XI, a new painting by Diango Hernández, for €40,000.

Interest remained notable in blue-chip contemporary artists. Moniker Projects reported the sales of two Tracey Emin prints for £14,000 each, a Tracey Emin bronze approaching £10,000 and a Damien Hirst print for £14,000, signalling continued confidence in YBA artists.

Modern and 20th-century highlights included the sale of Here We Go A-Maying (1988) by British painter Gillian Ayres in the region of £50,000, underscoring demand for this leading abstract painter. Other reported highlights include:

• Jonathan Clark Fine Art’s sale of Karl Weschke’s Seated Figure (1957)
• Eames Fine Art Gallery’s sales of works by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore in the region of £9,000, reporting their best fair ever
• Harry Moore-Gwyn’s sale of works by Paul Nash and Frances Hodgkin in the £10,000–£20,000 bracket
• Portland Gallery’s sale of a significant work by Mary Fedden for upwards of £20,000
• Christopher Kingzett’s sale of a David Hockney lithograph portraying British textile designer Celia Birtwell for around £15,000
• England & Co’s presentation of British Surrealism, with sales of works by Sir Roland Penrose, John Banting, John and Ruth Selby-Bigge, Rolf Brandt and Eileen Agar, with interest from museums, art dealers and private collectors

Sculptural works also performed well. Beaux Arts Bath sold Walking Baboon (1989), a major sculpture by Dame Elisabeth Frink, for approximately £40,000.

Craft-led work: ceramics, textiles, and material experimentation

Craft materials, particularly ceramics and textiles, played a prominent role, notably in the Platform section “The Unexpected”, curated by Ferren Gipson. The selection foregrounded material experimentation, textiles, applied art and unconventional mediums, mirroring a broader contemporary art market appetite for process, tactility and sculpture-led practice.

Cavaliero Finn noted interest from younger collectors, selling four of Alice Foxen’s ceramic pillow works, each priced at around £1,000, as well as Isobel Fletcher’s Industrial Offcuts: Freed of London, Mass (2025), made from repurposed offcuts from ballet shoes, which sold to a younger collector in the region of £2,000.

Thrown Contemporary, returning to the Fair for the first time since 2019, reported encouraging results, including the sale of Zuleika Melluish’s Birth Flower Calendar, an installation of ceramic flowers, for £12,500. Thrown Gallery Director Claire Pearce noted that it is “nice to see that people are open to ceramics”.

Beyond Platform, ceramics continued to perform well. Eames Fine Art Gallery reported sales by ceramicist Anita Klein, while Long & Ryle sold Su Blackwell’s delicate paper sculpture Chalk Flowers (2025) for around the £8,000 mark. Belgium-based Kokeshi Gallery sold a wooden Japanese sculpture, or “Kokeshi”, by Inosuke Kobayashi titled Kasuga no Tsubone, and saw institutional interest, including a representative from the Japanese embassy.

Prints & Editions: accessible collecting and five-figure names

The Prints & Editions section reflected the Fair’s appeal to collectors working across accessible and premium price points. Box Gallery sold Simon Claridge’s Bardot with Cigar, a limited-edition silkscreen print of French actress Brigitte Bardot, while Klein Gallery reported strong sales of Alison Friend’s miniature dog portraits.

At higher price points, Advanced Graphics sold out a group of prints by Craigie Aitchison to commemorate the centenary of his birth, priced between £2,000 and £20,000. This included Bedlington (Dog) in Red (1999), first shown at London Art Fair 27 years ago.

Peter Harrington reported multiple works by leading 20th-century European artists achieving five-figure prices, including prints by Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. Demand was particularly high for Salvador Dalí, with six prints sold, while the gallery also sold out on opening day of the first reproduction of Gustav Klimt’s Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (1931), following last year’s record-setting auction performance for the original.

See also

International engagement and cultural collaboration in Encounters

Encounters, the Fair’s section for emerging contemporary art and international galleries, proved a dynamic platform for cross-border cultural collaboration and new collector networks.

Blink Art Gallery confirmed sales to both UK and US collectors and welcomed representatives from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London. Lisbon-based Perve Galerie noted productive connections, including a visit from the UAE Embassy to view work by Emirati artist Marya Al Qassimi, shown at the Fair for the first time. Mexico City–based gallery Avant.Dev reported strong international footfall, particularly from Latin American visitors, and interest in the work of pixel artist Murakiit. Faam Gallery also reported international engagement with sales of works by Iranian artists Mohammad Hadi Fadavi and Ramezanzadeh Kermani.

Talks, events, and the market context

London Art Fair hosted a lively talks and events programme, featuring curators, art market experts and leading figures from the art world. Contributors included Melanie Gerlis, Dr Pyrle Behrman and representatives of Art Tactic, who debuted their Annual Art Market report.

Highlights included a discussion hosted by partner Visit Tampa Bay titled ‘Art Without Borders’, exploring artistic “currencies” of place, from street art to institutional commissions, and how artists translate cultural experiences into work that resonates far beyond its point of origin. A talk hosted by Museum Partner the National Trust offered insights into the display of work from the collections of two of Britain’s modernist architectural masterpieces: 2 Willow Road and The Homewood.

Cancer Research UK, London Art Fair’s Official Charity Partner

Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving and improving lives through research, influence, and information. Over the past 50 years, their pioneering work has helped double cancer survival in the UK. Today, it continues to save lives, here and around the world.

During this year’s Fair, Cancer Research UK showcased the works of two artists, Carole Ellis and Helen Anahita Wilson, whose lives have been shaped by their cancer diagnoses. Though distinctive in their approach, both artists offer powerful reflections on illness, resilience and the relationship between lived experience and scientific advancement.

Echoing the themes explored in these artworks, Cancer Research UK highlights that just as artists create work that shapes future generations, leaving a gift in your Will ensures your values live on and continue to drive progress.

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©2026 London Art Fair

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