LONDON.- London Art Fair 2026 has opened with strong commercial results, reporting significant 5-figure sales for British female pioneers like Gillian Ayres and Bridget Riley. With over 120 galleries exhibiting at the Business Design Centre in Angel, the opening preview on 20 January saw a high volume of transactions ranging from accessible £4,500 contemporary works to blue-chip names like Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst.

Galleries noted a busy start to the fair with a noticeably high number of international attendees, and the first evening saw many exciting sales take place.

Highlight sales from the first day include:

· Gerrish Fine Art reported a standout sale of Paul Nash’s Dahlias (1927). The painting carries significant cultural provenance, having appeared in the background of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Dial M for Murder.

· Aurulum sold Here We Go A-Maying (1988) by Gillian Ayres for a sum in the region of £50,000, underscoring the enduring demand for the female pioneer of British abstraction.

· Moniker Projects saw significant interest in work by blue-chip artists, reporting the sale of a Tracey Emin print for £7,000 and a Damien Hirst work for £14,000, signalling a robust appetite for the YBA icons. The gallery also sold a print by Bridget Riley for £22,500.

· Gillian Jason Gallery, which champions women-identifying artists, reported strong sales for new work by Emily Ponsonby at the fair’s Platform section, with multiple paintings sold at price points ranging from £4,500 to £18,000. Ponsonby has seen an increased interest in her work following her exhibition as part of the National Portrait Gallery’s Visitors' Choice competition.

· Eames Fine Art Gallery demonstrated the market's continued interest in "safe-haven" Modern British assets, reporting sales of works by 20th-century titans Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore alongside contemporary favourites such as Anita Klein and Trevor Price and new work by Barrington Tobin and Michael Ibbison.

· Harry Moore-Gwyn solidified the strength of the Modern British sector with sales of works by Paul Nash and Frances Hodgkin in the £10,000 – £20,000 bracket.

· Alveston Fine Arts achieved success across a variety of mediums, with 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.

· Drang Gallery saw the sale of Wolfgang Bloch’s 1262-24 for £17,500.

· Winsor Birch saw the sale of Venice, an oil painting by Patrick Procktor R.A., for upwards of £30,000, as well as a 1965 painting by New Zealand painter Felix Kelly.