This March, The Other Art Fair is staying true to their name by challenging gender inequality in the art market with an impressive 69% female-identifying artist line-up and will include several unique new female-focused features.
The popular artist-led Fair returns to The Truman Brewery this March, offering Londoners the chance to buy artwork directly from over 150 exciting independent artists. Continuing its bold intention to reframe art and how it is enjoyed; the Fair offers a platform that is inclusive, evocative, and challenges convention. With independent artists at the forefront, collectors and art enthusiasts can experience art buying and viewing in an illuminating new way whilst supporting the artists directly.
East London Strippers Collective make their Art Fair Debut
In celebration of International Women’s Day, the March edition boasts an impressive 69% female-identifying artist line-up and will include several unique new female-focused features. Highlights include an art fair debut from the East London Strippers Collective, who will present a curated hang and life drawing workshop series. Founded in 2014, the ELSC are committed to supporting and promoting self-organisation among strippers and lap dancers, challenging the stigma around sex work, standing up to exploitation and fighting for improved safety and harm reduction in the wider sex industry.
Visitors are invited to partake in a thrilling rendition of a classic life drawing workshop complete with high-octane aerial poses and pole tricks, as stripping and erotic performance collide with the art world in a forty-five-minute slot costing just £15 per person. This is the first time the East London Strippers Collective have ever featured at an art fair and their curated hang will comprise works created by members of the collective responding to the theme of sex work, with most of the artists currently or formerly stripping to help fund their artistic practice.
Another debut artist at the Fair is Purple Diamond Tarot who uses her bespoke hand-painted tarot deck to empower and promote aligned wellbeing. Visitors are welcome to a free drop-in on Friday between 7-9 pm with a twenty-minute session costing between £20 and £25.
There’s also a Pairing Room from Black Chalk Wine – a creative workshop space with (complimentary) wine pairing sessions like no other. Visitors can look forward to crisp and wine pairing sessions, speed dating and charcoal sketching tutorials inspired by their bottle artwork hosted by abstract artist Shumaiya Khan – all whilst sipping their Classic Sparkling Wine 2020 and Dancer in Pink still Rose 2022.
Celebrating Female Artists
Artist highlights include the vibrant portraiture of Joanna Pilarczyk, the vintage pastel tones of Nadia Attura’s stunning photography, the British Ghanaian abstract artist Courtenay Kusitor and the delicate handwritten art of Taya De La Cruz. The arresting portraiture of Lauren Mele, exploring the female as muse and contemporary oil painter Kit Lintin who combines the everyday with the symbolic in her still-lifes, marvelling at the interplay between fantasy and reality. Returning to the Fair is Willow Stacey with her popular tongue-in-cheek textile statements, highlighting the societal expectations and experiences of womanhood. Imogen Morris showcases her unique approach which challenges the boundary between craft and fine art by incorporating thread with more traditional mediums to create her detailed depictions.
The Other Art Fair’s charity partner for this upcoming March edition is Choose Love who will present a curated hang consisting of works donated by exhibiting artists at the Fair with 100% of the proceeds from each work going straight to Choose Love. Established in 2015 when a group of friends began collecting donations for refugees in Calais, Choose Love has supported over 5 million people in 8 years. They respond to emergencies by providing search and rescue, emergency medical care and vital supplies and they support people’s long term needs as they rebuild their lives.”
The Other Art Fair, 7-10 March.The Truman Brewery, 85 Brick Lane, London E1 6QR. www.theotherartfair.com
