If you’re a North Londoner, you might already know of the Candid Arts Trust and its regular exhibitions, life drawing classes and other arty pursuits. Tucked away in a warehouse behind Angel station, the Candid Galleries are also home to an annual celebration of new and established artists with is the Islington Contemporary Art and Design Fair.

Four themed weekends cover different topics. The schedule for this year is as follows; see link above for opening times and to register for Thursday night previews:

Week One

Painting, Sculpture and Time-Based Media  (2nd – 4th Oct)

Week Two

Photography, Illustration, Graphics, Printmaking  9th-11th Oct, previews 8th)

Week Three

Fashion, Textiles, Jewellery (16th-18th Oct, previews 15th)

Week Four

Design Products, Furniture, Ceramics, Glass (23rd-25th Oct, previews 22nd)

I went along to the preview night for week one last night, and was astounded by the range of work on offer. I had gone initially to stop by and see Magdalena Ross, as I’ve known her for years and admire her Cezanne-inspired haunting paintings, but also ended up wowed by everything else on offer.

Over two floors, there was a collision of everything from fabric sculptures, to incredibly detailed and amusing bronzework, to an armchair transformed into a sedan chair and some evocative 2D oil landscapes based on fantasy worlds from 3D animation software.

One favourite was from an artist who used letters from her grandparents as the basis for beautiful canvases filled with swirled, watery ink, scribbles, extracts from correspondence and postmarks.  Another painted figures that would be photorealistic, but that they were part-animal, part-human, on stark, black backgrounds; the social commentary was laid on as thick as the paint (men in hoodies, each with the heads of ‘status’ dogs, or locked in a viscious fight) to create a terrifying canvas.

The work is all available to buy and ranges from £50 to the low thousands; maybe best to get in there before some of these artists inevitably start getting the fame and fortune they deserve.

I’ll be hoping to make it to some of the other weeks and this time will go armed with a camera and notebook to bring back more of the details! However, if you’re anywhere near the area on Friday, Saturday or Sunday afternoons for the next few weeks, I recommend dropping in yourself.

Admission is completely free and there’s a bar on site selling £2 glasses of wine so you can wave your glass in the air while making pretentious statements about what’s on offer if you really want to.