<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&amp;nbsp;Visitors and exhibitors are unanimous:&amp;nbsp;Art13 London\u2019s opening yesterday was a good one. Over 6,000 people made it to&amp;nbsp;Olympia Grand Hall&amp;nbsp;in the sleepy West London neighbourhood of Kensington, including 3,000 VIPs. A number of very serious collectors were spotted strolling the aisles, although some of the most recognizable faces \u2013 the&amp;nbsp;Rubells,&amp;nbsp;Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, and&amp;nbsp;Sydney Picasso&amp;nbsp;\u2013 had all been smartly linked to the fair, either as members of the advisory board or speakers on Art13 London\u2019s extensive talks programme. Heartthrob&amp;nbsp;du jour&amp;nbsp;Harry Styles, from the British boy band&amp;nbsp;One Direction, took his first steps as an art collector, purchasing a&amp;nbsp;Ben Turnbull&amp;nbsp;sculpture at&amp;nbsp;Eleven Gallery&amp;nbsp;for \u00A31,800 ($2,700).Now that the glitter has started to settle, it\u2019s time for a first tally, and while the floor appeared much quieter today, the figures are looking good. \u201CThis is the London art fair we\u2019ve been waiting for,\u201D said Eleven Gallery\u2019s&amp;nbsp;Charlie Phillips, who also sold a large collage by Turnbull for \u00A316,500 ($25,000) and two framed video pieces by&amp;nbsp;Gerry Fox&amp;nbsp;at \u00A32,750 ($4,100) a pop.At time of writing, the biggest sale went to&amp;nbsp;K\u00E1lm\u00E1n Makl\u00E1ry Fine Arts&amp;nbsp;from Budapest, who sold \u201CMass Writing,\u201D a large 1958 abstract painting by&amp;nbsp;Judit Reigl&amp;nbsp;for \u00A3200,000 ($300,000) to a British collector. Reigl is still working at age 90, and she\u2019s one of the fair\u2019s discoveries. Born in Hungary, the painter moved to Paris in 1950, where&amp;nbsp;Andr\u00E9 Breton&amp;nbsp;put together her first exhibition. She has been enjoying a reappraisal of late, and her works have found their way to some of the world\u2019s biggest art museums, including the&amp;nbsp;Guggenheim,&amp;nbsp;MoMA, and&amp;nbsp;Tate.The staff at the Shanghai and Hong Kong-based&amp;nbsp;Pearl Lam Galleries, which is presenting works by&amp;nbsp;Su Xiaobai&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;Zhu Jinshi, was also all smiles, and confided having sold \u201Cmore than two pieces\u201D for prices ranging from $80,000 to $150,000. The fair felt \u201Cfresh,\u201D they said, adding it was \u201Ca good time of the year\u201D to do it.That wasn\u2019t obvious at first. In March,&amp;nbsp;Frieze Week&amp;nbsp;is a distant memory, June\u2019s auction week not yet on people\u2019s minds, and the&amp;nbsp;Armory&amp;nbsp;is only days away. But the choice of date characterizes Art13 London\u2019s ambitions. This wasn\u2019t meant to be a satellite fair, feeding off Frieze\u2019s crumbs. From the start, Art13 London has presented itself as a destination, able to attract its own crowd, which might or might not overlap with London\u2019s bigger fair\u2019s usual clientele.Beijing\u2019s&amp;nbsp;PIFO Gallery&amp;nbsp;is certainly not regretting the trip, having sold abstract paintings by&amp;nbsp;Kang Haitao,&amp;nbsp;Zhang Xuerui, and&amp;nbsp;Liang Quan, priced between \u00A315,000 and \u00A320,000 ($23,000 to $30,000). Head of gallery development&amp;nbsp;Niru Ratnam&amp;nbsp;summed up Art13 London\u2019s approach: \u201C70 percent of the galleries are new to London, and 50 percent of the artists have a non-Western background \u2026 That\u2019s really what we are trying to do.\u201DThe choice seems to have paid off. Fair fatigue is hard to escape when confronted with the same galleries, showing the same artists from London to Hong Kong, Basel to New York. For now, Art13\u2019s buyers seem to be mainly based in Europe, with London collectors overwhelmingly predominating. But with such a global makeup \u2013 and if the fair continues to deliver \u2013 this could change quickly.\u201CI\u2019m really impressed,\u201D said&amp;nbsp;Sam Dukan, from Paris\u2019s&amp;nbsp;Galerie Dukan. \u201CUsually new art fairs don\u2019t start with a gallery selection of this quality. The main London galleries are not here, we knew this was the case, but there are some major foreign galleries.\u201D For his first outing in the British capital, Dukan has gone local and curated a solo presentation of black-and-white drawings by the London-based artist&amp;nbsp;Nina Fowler,&amp;nbsp;priced between \u00A31,800 and \u00A37,000 ($2,700 and $10,000). A large drawing of&amp;nbsp;James Dean&amp;nbsp;in \u201CGiant,\u201D the biggest piece on display, sold last night during the last minutes of the private view.Not all the galleries are on a roll, though. \u201CSales-wise, it\u2019s been quite slow,\u201D confided&amp;nbsp;Selma Feriani, from London\u2019s&amp;nbsp;Selma Feriani Gallery. So far, she has sold a video by Sama Alshaibi (\u201CThe Tethered,\u201D \u00A39,000/$14,000) and a fetching abstract painting by&amp;nbsp;Amel Bennys&amp;nbsp;(\u00A35,000/$7,500) to collectors she already knew.&amp;nbsp;Galerie Ramakers, from The Hague, was also somewhat disappointed, despite having come with a stunning selection of collages and sculptures by the Dutch artist&amp;nbsp;Ossip&amp;nbsp;(with prices starting at a very reasonable \u00A3750/$1,100).\u201CPeople take a while to get used to new things,\u201D mused African contemporary art dealer&amp;nbsp;Jack Bell, from&amp;nbsp;Jack Bell Gallery. \u201CBut they are generally very happy to discover new artists.\u201D Already gone from his solo display by the Benin photographer&amp;nbsp;Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou&amp;nbsp;were a single image and a triptych, \u00A35,000 and \u00A32,000 ($7,500 and $3,000), respectively, from the artist\u2019s \u201CDemoiselles\u201D series.Overall, spirits were high when ARTINFO UK left the building. \u201CIt\u2019s probably one of our best fairs,\u201D beamed&amp;nbsp;Asmaa Al Shabibi, co-founder of Dubai\u2019s&amp;nbsp;Lawrie Shabibi. Most of their works by Iranian artist&amp;nbsp;Shahpour Pouyan&amp;nbsp;and American artist&amp;nbsp;Asad Faulwell&amp;nbsp;ranging from \u00A3650 to \u00A315,000 ($1,000 to $23,000) have found good homes. \u201CAnd it\u2019s so nice to be in London.\u201D Then she rushed off to look after another client.Art13 London, March 1-3, Olympia Grand Hall."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/873461/positive-sales-and-spirits-at-art13-london-opening-signal-a?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+artinfo-all+%28All+Content+%7C+ARTINFO%29>