Five highlights from art and design fair PAD London

During the first week of October most of the art world descends on London as the Frieze comes to the capital. But art aficionados in the know will be making a beeline for Berkeley Square to nose around the less sung about PAD London Art Fair which runs until 8th October.

First established in London in 2007, PAD London – a spin off from PAD Paris – offers an eclectic mix of contemporary art spanning modern art, design, the decorative arts, photography and tribal art. This year, emerging British designers such as Matthew Chambers, Bethan Laura Wood and London-based duo Brooksbank & Collins take the spotlight among exceptional pieces from designers from around the world including an entirely new body of aluminium work by South Korean designer Wonmin Park.

Whether looking to purchase a work of art, or simply to marvel at the pieces on display, there is something that will catch the eye of every visitor. Here we round up some of the highlights. 

Plain Cuts Low Table (4 plates), 2017, by Wonmin Park at Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Celebrated for this pastel-hued resin pieces, South Korean artist Wonmin Park has created a line of aluminium furniture. This range of limited edition tables experiments with the opaque nature aluminium metal exploring how it can be worked to give the illusion of transparency. 

Wonmin Park / Carpenters Workshop Gallery

The Fonteyn Chair, 2017, by Brooksbank & Collins at Gallery Fumi

Combining the respective disciplines of architecture (Brooksbank) and fine art (Collins), this London-based duo creates wonderfully balanced and artful pieces. The Fonteyn Chair (pictured) was named after the ballet dancer Dame Margot Fonteyn. The elegance of ballet is captured in the poised angle that the burr oak veneer is set into the base of verde guatemala marble.  

Brooksbank & Collins / Gallery Fumi

Flowering Vegetables, 1957-59,  by Edward Burra at Robin Katz Fine Art Gallery 

Specialising in 20th-century British art, Robin Katz Fine Art is a bijou gallery that covers all aspects of modern British art. This year, Katz's stall at PAD houses this vibrant watercolour by British artist Edward Burra, who due to crippling arthritis painted his watercolours horizontally. Numerous, verdant washes of luminous watercolour bring this work of art to captivating life.   

Two 19th Century demantoid garnet, diamond, ruby and gold beetle and fly brooches, now a pair of cufflinks by Eliane Fattal 

Transforming antique pieces into contemporary jewellery designer Eliane Fattal has given this sparkling duo of jewel-encrusted beetle and fly brooches a new lease of life by reinventing them as a jaunty pair of cufflinks. 

Abyss Coffee Table, 2016, by Christopher Duffy at Sarah Myserscough Gallery 

Echoing the darkening of the sea as it becomes deeper, British designer Christopher Duffy’s Abyss Coffee Table recreates the mesmerising tones and depths of the ocean in glass sheets and Perspex on a layered wooden base.

Duffy London / Sarah Myserscough Gallery