Berkeley Square has once again been taken over by PAD (Pavilion of Art & Design), the stylish collectors' fair now in its 18th edition, open to the public from October 15 to 18. Sixty-seven galleries from 18 countries set up beneath the plane trees — some of the trunks are literally incorporated into booth design — and the crowd skews fashionable: expect designer jackets, the odd celebrity sighting, and a genuinely international mix of museum-quality historical works and contemporary design.
This year's fair has a strong nature thread running through it. Sarah Myerscough Gallery built its booth around timber in all its forms, from Nic Webb's paper-thin ash pendant lights to Frank Murphy's Sceilg Table carved from a 300-year-old tree, plus a 3D-printed shellac vessel by Ori Orisun Merhav that the Centre Pompidou has already acquired. Rademakers Gallery went full 'Overgrown', with mossy wall hangings by Alfhild Sarah Külper (formerly of Viktor & Rolf) and furniture by Eindhoven graduates that looks like it sprouted on the spot.
Best Booth went to Italian gallery Voena, on debut, whose inky-black salon is designed around a 1957 Lucio Fontana painting mounted on the ceiling — you're meant to lie back on the sofas and stare up at it. The mood is 'between a nightclub and a boudoir', with a pastel sketch by Mexican modernist Alfredo Ramos Martinez and 1930s sconces against the noir backdrop.
There are twelve new galleries this edition, including Buccellati with an installation by Chahan Minassian, Lloyd Choi Gallery's ceramics, and Bessa Pereira flying the flag for Brazilian modernism. Marc Newson's Chop Top Table at Galerie Kreo took the contemporary design prize. Elsewhere: Yves Salomon Éditions debuts with a personal collection of Carlo Bugatti furniture (the polymath father of carmaker Ettore), all parchment, copper, bone and mother-of-pearl inlays from around 1900; Maison Jaune Studio mixes vintage '60s and '70s pieces with a hero Romeo Reyna weaving made for a Hollywood screenwriter's home; and Galerie Mélissa Paul stages a solo show of Erwan Boulloud's bronze-and-oak pieces inspired by fossils and meteorites.
If you can't make the fair, Gallery FUMI's show Companions runs until November 28 at 2-3 Hay Hill — a colourful collection of shingle-clad timber furniture by Berlin couple Lukas Wegwerth and Corinna Dehn, made with salvaged wood and natural pigments.
Why should a traveller care? PAD is one of those rare fairs where design, art and antiques sit side by side, and much of it is functional — furniture and lighting you can actually buy and live with, as Charles Burnand's co-founder points out. Even if your budget runs to nothing, it's an hour of world-class looking in one of Mayfair's prettiest squares, a short stroll from Mount Street's boutiques and some of London's best galleries. Tickets at the door, a quick visit fits easily between lunch and dinner.
