Five of the Best: PAD London 2013

October 17, 2013

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Matthew Steeples selects five of the best items on display at PAD

Coinciding with Frieze week, PAD in Mayfair’s Berkeley Square is a small yet sophisticated showcase. Here, we select five of the best items on display:

The screen is a magic environment

British interactive artist Dominic Harris’s Deep Blue aquarium is the seventh out of eight available. Priced at £80,000 and available through Priveekollektie, this two dimensional video triptych “allows the viewer to become the active participant” as the fish respond and follow their movements. Here, indeed, is an artwork that will give countless hours of pleasure to both children and adults.

Time is indeed a Treasure

Three caterpillar like sculptures by Nacho Carbonell surprisingly also contain zoomorphic clocks. Hidden on the surface and crafted from slices of blue agate and burnished bronze, these are indeed great talking points. The three unique Time is a Treasure pieces are available for between £31,000 and £44,000 through Galerie BSL.

A console or a bar?

The Madrid based Garrido Gallery are selling a Cilindros console for £55,000. A limited edition of eight pieces, this conversation piece is available in gold or silver or can even be customised to the individual tastes of whomever purchases. Perfect as a bar, it’d make a most suitable setting to enjoy a Martin Miller’s and tonic.

Wings of Desire

For their first London showcase, Lebanon’s Smogallery are displaying a Morning Angel mirror by Gregory Gatserelia. With hints of Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire to it, the £22,000 item in polished stainless steel with marble wings would look just perfect in the dressing room of any lady.

Slicing a chair

Danish designer Mathias Bengtsson’s Slice Chair is described as “one of the most important cutting edge pieces of recent design history”. With examples from the limited edition of twenty in the Manchester Art Museum, The Carnegie Museum of Arts and the Milwaukee Art Museum, this layered plywood chair is one of just three still available. The Galerie Maria Wettergren seek £34,000.