Masterpiece London 2022

After two years of pandemic-induced postponement, this year's Masterpiece fair, one of the world's leading multidisciplinary art fairs, is scheduled to be back from June 30 to July 6, 2022, with a one-day preview on June 29 at its usual riverside location: the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea (a vast complex that is home to some 300 British army veterans).

In its early years, Masterpiece strove to find an identity by offering everything from expensive luxury goods to antiques and design objects. The luxury-goods aspect of the fair was subsequently toned down, allowing Masterpiece to come into its own and become an attractive enough proposition for MCH Group to step in and buy it in 2017. MCH is an international marketing company that organizes and hosts about 90 exhibitions, including the Art Basel shows in Basel. In its December 2017 announcement of the purchase, MCH Group said Masterpiece brought together wide-ranging groups of collectors and had the potential to expand to other locations in the United States, Asia, and the Middle East.

Masterpiece Presents, launched in 2017, is a large-scale, dedicated exhibition space within Masterpiece London, transforming the Fair's entrance and providing a platform for innovative, immersive works of art. This year's Masterpiece Presents features two monumental light installations by Pakistani-American artist Anila Quayyum Agha, represented by Sundaram Tagore Gallery. Masterpiece, as usual, plans an extensive range of offerings this year: from antiquities and old masters to contemporary art, jewelry, and design. On a wander through its airy, carpeted halls this year, you might come across a Triceratops dinosaur skull more than 60 million years old, a first edition of Jane Austen's "Emma," an emerald bangle, and a painting by the British-Portuguese painter Paula Rego, who died earlier this month.