Saturday was a fabulous day spent at Pick Me Up, a Graphic Design and Illustration Fair, at Somerset House. It’s the third year of the fair, but my first to attend, and is running until April 1st. It was a brilliant visit, most art fairs can be stuffy and a chore to walk around, with one suffering from visual indigestion after countless artworks. But Pick Me up is centered around being accessible to everyone, from art collectors to lovers, with a hands on/make your own element being key to the fun. The fair is a mix of picks from the print and illustration scene, and a variety of studios and print houses exhibiting, including Nobrow, Nelly Duff, YCA and Print Club London. There were so many visual gems at the fair, but here are some of the works that caught my eye. (And apologies for the awful phone photography – check the artist websites!)

Zim & Zou

It has been impossible not to notice these bright paper camera doing the rounds on the blogsphere recently. Based in France, the Zim and Zou studio make paper sculptures and photograph the objects in made enviroments. Exhibiting works from their Back to Basics and Cabinet des Curiousities projects, the detail and precision that goes into these works is a brightly coloured triumph.

Owen Gildersleeve

Another paper artist that caught my eye is the below work by Owen Gildersleeve – Pixel Piracy – which is a follow on work from an illustration in Wired. Anything with pixels, bright colours, and skulls and I am sold. I can’t imagine the patience that went into putting together all of these individual slices of paper to make the finished image.

Mimi Leung

Mimi Leung studied at Central St Martins but is now based in Melbourne, her zany and colorful illustrations take surreal anatomy past a gross-cute level. In the past she has worked for clients such as Nike, AOL and The Guardian, and won the Central Australia Art Society Excellence Award in 2011.  The expressions are worth viewing alone, as is her brilliant blog.

 Tim McDonagh

I was instantly drawn to the dreamy linear work of this Brighton based artist Tim McDonagh. Working in brush and ink with a hint of digital, animals and lost objects are intertwined and maze of memory and unease, with only the slightest hint of colour. The largest work on display – Petrichor – was by far the most interesting, and is available as a free desktop background on his blog.

Sarah King

For those that like their type, look no further than Sarah King. This wordy jungle scene is both sophisticated and smart, and deserves a closer look.

Ciara Phelan

There was a bit of collage knocking around, but the best that caught my eye was from the craft desk of Ciara Phelan. Collecting and hand cutting images from old vintage-like images, they are applied into a montage of amazingness. Her work is a part of the Many Hands show, an artist collective she co-created, which contained lots of other exciting works that I will be investigating another time.

And the final spot, was actually in the entrance hall, a cute little artwork by Street artist Pablo Delgado, who I’d recently read about in VNA magazine. Usually spotted crawling the pavements of the East End, Blink, and you’ll walk past it.

I also bought my first proper piece of art at the fair. By which artist? That will have to be a blog for another time…

Tags: arts, Ciara Phelan, colorful illustrations, Graphic design, Illustration, Mimi Leung, Nelly Duff, Nobrow, Owen Gildersleeve, Pablo Delgado, Print, Print Club London, Sarah King, Somerset House, Tim McDonagh, visual gems, YCA, Zim & Zou