British Art Fair

For British Art Fair 2026, the gallery presents works by pioneering artists Basil Alkazzi (1936–2025), Dia al-Azzawi (b. 1939), Chila Kumari Burman (b. 1957), Anne Saïd (1914–1995), Stella Snead (1910-2006) and Felicity Powell (1961–2015), whose practices reflect the breadth of twentieth-century modernism. Expanding on traditional narratives of Modern British art, they reveal how the definition of ‘British’ has evolved to encompass diverse histories, perspectives and experiences.

Marking our first presentation of Basil Alkazzi's work following our recent representation of the Basil Alkazzi Estate, the booth will feature a selection of key works spanning his monumental six-decade career, including several of his celebrated gouache paintings. Born in Pune, India and of Saudi Arabian–Kuwaiti heritage, Alkazzi was a British visual artist and philanthropist whose luminous paintings explore cycles of life, landscape, and spiritual transformation. Moving fluidly between observed terrain and imagined, metaphysical realms, his work reflects a practice shaped by experimentation and cross-cultural exchange. Through an evocative language of colour and form, Alkazzi explored memory and the complexities of the human condition.

In parallel, Dia al-Azzawi’s work reflects a similarly expansive engagement with modernism across Iraq and Britain. Born in Baghdad in 1939 and based in London since 1976, he has developed a multidisciplinary practice defined by experimentation, freedom of expression and urgent political engagement. Azzawi is best known for masterfully combining colourful, semi-abstracted forms with themes drawn from Mesopotamian heritage, ancient myth, Arabic literature, and poetry. Similarly to Alkazzi, he explores universal aspects of the human experience, including migration, cultural identity, and belonging.

Stella Snead and Anne Saïd shared a formative connection through the Ozenfant Academy in London, where both studied alongside fellow Surrealist pioneer Leonora Carrington. Born in London in 1910, Snead developed a visionary practice spanning painting, photography and photo-collage, shaped by her deep engagement with natural phenomena, the cosmos and the imaginative subconscious. Born in Hook, Hampshire, in 1914, Saïd studied at Queen’s College, London, before attending the Ozenfant Academy from 1936 to 1939. There, she developed a distinctive visual language informed by Surrealism, creating drawings and paintings that combine close observation of the natural world with a lyrical, dreamlike quality. Their shared connection to the Ozenfant Academy provides a point of departure for considering two distinct yet complementary approaches to Surrealism.

With sculpture at the centre of her practice, Felicity Powell’s wax reliefs explore themes of mythology and the uncanny through a profound sensitivity to material and the intimate scale of the hand-held object. A survey of Felicity Powell’s work is currently on view at our Dover Street Gallery, marking the first dedicated exhibition of the British artist’s practice since her untimely death in 2015.

Additional works by Magda Cordell (1921–2008), John McHale (1922–1978) and Peter Collingwood (1922 - 2008) will also be on view.

Location: 

Saatchi gallery

London SW3 4RY

Hours
24 September | 12 PM – 9 PM (By Invitation)
25 September | 11 AM – 9 PM
26 September | 11 AM – 7 PM
27 September | 11 AM – 5 PM

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