ART

Escaping Reality at the London Art Fair 2026

From Frank Björklund’s Surreal Qualities to Johnny Abraham’s Palette Knife

BY VANESA KRIZONYTE

The London Art Fair 2026 welcomed 120 galleries featuring emerging talent and established artists. Within a space offering an array of genres, narratives, and styles, our journey gravitated towards works rooted in surreal and abstract qualities. Across the fair, we mapped out the tendency for artists to insert both conscious and unconscious ideas. This overview centres on surrealism as a bridge between escapism and grounded experience, shaping our perspective on contemporary art.

Upon arrival, the first mission was to locate the Mollbrinks Gallery, established in 1957 in Sweden by Lars Mollbrink. Now under the direction of Johan Hauffman, the gallery’s artistic vision is shaped by his deep admiration for surrealism, with a specialism in Anders Zorn, Salvador Dalí, and Marc Chagall. Together, Mollbrink Gallery and Frank Björklund invite audiences to experience art that challenges perception, sparks reflection, and raises questions of our time.

We were greeted by nature’s landscape of infinite hills, fluffy clouds, and architectural pillars stretching into the sky, prompting an immediate pause.

 

 

I’ve travelled specifically to see this artist. It feels great to be here. Give me a moment to digest it.

Frank Björklund: I am the artist.

*In this moment, we were blessed by the profound presence of Frank Björklund.

Is the exaggeration of architectural structure exploring religious ideas?

This artwork is the philosophy of Gods and Air. The way air is the universal language, and without it, we may not exist.

How did you develop your artist signature?

I’m not there yet. I only paint when an idea is born.

 

 

Displayed nearby, the piece titled Power of Words presented a reflection on language and belief. The word “sky” is centralised on a typewriter, while birds flying across are accepted as reality, exposing how easily meaning can replace truth when thinking is absent. With characteristic humour, Björklund addresses the power of words and how easily information can be taken at face value. Each twist and narrative exaggeration carries an ecological message on human relations with nature and a question of philosophy. The elongated pillars transitioning into the sky deepen existential ideas, leaving the painting to go where the viewer takes it. To us, Frank Björklund offers the chance to escape from restricted societal frameworks.

 

 

Vigo Gallery, founded in 2011 and known for curating shows in the public and private arenas, offered a presentation of Johnny Abrahams featuring the artwork Untitled, 2023. We magnify a technique that follows the harmony of musical arrangements. Using a palette knife, Abraham applies layered swaths of elemental colour to his canvases with oil and wax. The recurring red and blue paint strokes, combined with space subtraction and perceptual balance, are central to his practice. At first glance, it may not speak, but once the calculated movement and rhythm of paint is encountered, the abstraction offers mindful escape. Similar to Björklund’s architectural pillars travelling into the sky, Abrahams’ smooth transitional surfaces invite stillness and existential reflection.

 

 

Continuing this exploration of abstraction, Diango Hernández’s presentation at Wizard Gallery brought a fluid energy to the fair. A Cuban artist, Hernández’s abstract wave painting technique carries vitality. In the artwork Pool Olaista No.1, undulating brushstrokes are removed from nature’s familiar blue palette and translated into architectural structures, while still retaining the language of the sea. Hernández shines through on his understanding of brushstroke and calculated insertion. In 2026, it feels relevant to spotlight an artist fusing painterly tradition with the integration of AI and a clear-cut colour movement.

The connection to surrealism reveals ways a brush movement can push us forward into existential exploration. Navigating the London Fair this season, the mind is challenged by philosophical questions, while moments of abstraction offer escape. As the fair takes place in January, it inevitably shapes artistic tastes for the year ahead. 

Following our visit and dialogues, we encountered the work of Martin Wojnowski, with whom we will explore surrealism and the intersection of interior narratives. Like Björklund, he questions humane complexities within his canvas. We also extended an invitation to the founder of Malgré-Lui to speak about the abstract concept of attitude. Ultimately, the fair demonstrates the power of surrealism to move beyond the canvas, allowing each visitor to leave with a message shaped by their own perspective.

Thank you to the London Art Fair and Flint Culture for Press Accreditation. Gratitude to Frank Björklund, Johan Hauffman and Mollbrinks Gallery. To Seb Salisbury at Vigo Gallery. To Riccardo Gay Luger at Wizard Gallery. Published, February 2026.