This Saturday marks the return of the Art Car Boot Fair (ACBF) – and it’s promising to be another stellar event, with artists including Jeremy Deller, Hayden Kays, Geraldine Swayne, Carrie Reichardt and photographer Rankin all lined up to sell their works.
The biannual sale, which launched in 2004 and describes itself as “a vibrant cross between an art fair and a car boot sale” features as many as 120 invited artists, who sell work that has been exclusively commissioned and created for the fair.
Boasting prices that are “fabulously reduced” and following its aim of being a “democratic and fun way to buy art”, the fair is a way for artists and the public to mingle in an informal setting as the artists turn up to sell their own work.
“The Art Car Boot Fair is the ultimate art POP-UP,” said Karen Ashton, founder of ACBF. “The one day in the art calendar when the artists let their hair down, make something new and sell it for shockingly low prices, joining in with the ACBF ethos of art, frivolity and serious bargains. Literally anyone and everyone can become a collector for the day!”
This edition’s artists, which include photographer Juno Calypso, Philip Colbert (who was described by the late Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley as “The godson of Andy Warhol”), Ben Eine, who is known for his alphabet lettering, the critically-acclaimed Unskilled Worker and British contemporary artist Bob and Roberta Smith, will be making work in reaction to this edition’s theme of POP!.
Other artists in the mega line-up include graphic artists Margo McDaid and Anthony Burrill, multidisciplinary artist Helen Beard, KOKO ART, Cheerio Publishing and The Capitalist Hen.
The event will include raffles, bars, food, DJs, performances from the Bethnal Green Working Mens Club!, and there will be interactive activities going on throughout the day, such as live painting and printing, life drawing with London Drawing games, “dark therapy” from artist Misfortune Teller, and a live event from Rankin. Secret Art Casino and Renaissance Selfies will be present, and Deller will be signing his new book Art Magic.
The car boot sale will take place from 12pm- 6pm at Lewis Cubitt Square, Kings Cross, its third time at the central London spot. It costs £15 to enter the fair, but after 3pm this drops to £5 and after 5pm entry is free. There is a second, online version of the Art Car Boot Fair, which takes place between September 22 and 29.