Buy Art Fair, one of the UK’s most important festivals of visual arts, will offer Northern art lovers a unique chance to purchase affordable works by internationally recognised artists including Tracy Emin, Grayson Perry and Damien Hirst.
In an unprecedented move Manchester’s Buy Art Fair, famed for bringing hundreds of galleries, artists, talks, tours and workshops to Old Granada Studios St Johns, has announced that the Royal Academy of Art will be exhibiting for the first time. The prestigious institution will be bringing their portfolio of unique and limited editions by Royal Academicians and other significant contemporary artists including Tracey Emin and Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry.
Thom Hetherington, CEO of Buy Art Fair, said “This is a major coup for the fair, and indeed for Manchester. Every art lover worth their salt would love a piece by Emin or Hirst on their walls, and to have so many pieces by artists of this calibre on sale in Manchester is incredible.” Hetherington continues “Ticket sales for the fair are already at record levels, but this news will push them into overdrive.”
“We’re extremely proud to be presenting work by artists including Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry and Gary Hume, all whom have made limited editions for our RA Editions programme,” said Art Sales Programme Curator, Katherine Oliver. “Sales of these works are crucial in supporting the RA Schools and the Academy’s non-profit making activities, given that the institution receives no public funding”.
Emin is best known for her piece ‘My Bed’ which was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1999 and is about to go on display at Tate Liverpool. Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry is best known as a ceramicist, but also had a critically lauded show of exuberant tapestries ‘The Vanity of Small Differences’, at Manchester Art Gallery in late 2013. He uses imagery and text to chronicle social concerns, his own formative experiences and to tell the story of his alter ego, Claire.
Damien Hirst’s work will be available to buy from The Drang Gallery. Hirst’s most famous work, ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991’ of a shark in formaldehyde, has become one of the most iconic images of 90s contemporary art. Pieces available to buy at the fair include ‘For The Love Of God’, ‘Methylamine-13c’ and ‘To Begin’.
The Drang Gallery are also set to bring works by pop artist Sir Peter Blake. Blake who is best known for co-creating The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover as well as sleeves for The Who, Eric Clapton and Paul Weller.
Other famous artists with work at the fair include best-selling published artist in 2012 and 2014, Kerry Darlington with Generation Gallery; Sunday Times Watercolour Smith & Williamson Cityscape Prize winner Janet Kenyon; and work by Yoko Ono from BALTIC Editions.
Buy Art Fair and The Manchester Contemporary, 22-25 September 2016, Old Granada Studios St Johns, Manchester. Tickets available now from www.buyartfair.co.uk
