Celebrated for its unexpected take on the traditional art fair experience, The Other Art Fair presented by Saatchi Art returns to The Truman Brewery from 9-12 March, offering switched-on Londoners the chance to buy artwork directly from over 150 incredible emerging talents.
The Fair continues its mission to reframe art, and how it is enjoyed; offering a fair that is inclusive, evocative, and inspiring, with a vibrant programme of exciting features, guest exhibitions, immersive installations, live poetry readings and DJs.
In honour of International Women’s Day and their broader commitment to inclusivity, the Fair is proud to present an impressive 61% female line-up, championing some of the most exciting emerging female talents working today, continuing its ongoing mission to strive for gender parity in the art world. 64% are UK based artists, 11% are BIPOC creators and 47% of the line-up is London based.
Here are five must-see features:
The Sistxrhood
First of the notable features is an entrance installation created by Shangri-La Glastonbury’s womxn only SISTXRHOOD, especially created for The Truman Brewery space. The installation will include portrait photographs of visitors to The SISTXRHOOD taken by Hannah Sherlock during Glastonbury 2022. A small selection of prints from ShangrilART’s favourite artists and collaborators: Aida Wilde, Alice Skinner, Morag Myerscough, and Fandangoe Kid will also feature and be available to buy.
The SISTXRHOOD is committed to empowering and showcasing womxn, non-binary and gender-nonconforming artists in the music, arts, culture, and nightlife industries, improving gender equality through policy and programming. On the opening night The SISTXRHOOD – with DJ YES MEL (The Sistxrhood / Sista Selecta) will bring the energy on the decks.
Collage Club workshops
Another of the female fronted features comes in the form of Collage Club and their drop-in workshops hosted throughout the weekend. This workshop series celebrates the art of cutting and sticking! Embracing hands-on techniques and using scissors as a drawing tool, Collage Club is perfect for anyone keen to flex their creative muscles and get making without having to produce perfectly proportioned, boring drawings. Each themed session is packed with top notch magazines, colourful paper, shapes, and tapes for participants to rip, snip, glue and stick into something brand new.
Rod Kitson’s portraiture project “Where Are We Now”
Sit for a portrait with London based figurative artist Rod Kitson, who is bringing his ongoing live portraiture project ‘Where Are We Now’ to the Fair. Each sitting will take two hours and by the close of the Fair he will have created a mini gallery of visitor portraits, all painted from life, in oil paint. Also on display in his booth are many other portraits from the 350-painting series which he has been working on since 2019. It will form a London exhibition in June this year called Where Are We Now. The portraits created at the fair will also go into the summer exhibition.
©Rankin, Glyn & Jermaine, RankinLoves, 2020 ©Rankin
In TOAF tradition, guest artists and exclusive events will add to the line-up including prolific fashion and portrait photographer, Rankin. Rankin will be bringing his ambitious photographic experience RankinLIVE to the fair. Tickets include time in front of the lens, either solo or with a loved one, as well as a digital version of the final portrait and your very own A4 authenticated Rankin print. It is priced at £420.
Refugee Art Works presented by KarmaBank
The fair will also be platforming female refugee artists in collaboration with partnering charity, KarmaBank and the debut of their project, Refugee Art Works (RAW). RAW is a new multinational collective of female refugee artists & craft makers, drawn together for mutual support & creative development. Through RAW, KarmaBank provides micro grants to help displaced artists fleeing war and other abuses re-establish themselves. RAW will be represented at TOAF with an exhibition featuring artworks created by women artists originally from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
