The Other Art Fair Will Devote a Second Site Exclusively to Women Artists

The Other Art Fair, which opens in London next month, will launch a second site dedicated solely to exhibiting the work of women.

Curated by arts broadcaster and Soho House’s head of collections, Kate Bryan, the new fair, called “Not 30%,” is part exhibition, part protest against a male-dominated industry. “Not 30%,” which coincides with The Other Art Fair’s 30th edition, takes its name from a recent report that showed how women are represented less than a third of the time in the art world in comparison to men.

Additionally, while some 60 percent of students graduating art school are women, the ratio of female to male artists in museum collections and galleries doesn’t remotely reflect that statistic.

Artist Sarah Maple in a promotional photo for the fair. Photo: The Other Art Fair

“When I was asked to curate this section of The Other Art Fair, I knew we had a safe space for a noisy moment about women artists,” Bryan said in a statement. “‘Not 30%’ draws attention to the stark gender bias of the art world and actively positions these artists as a creative force not to be ignored. There are many changes underway in the art world to address gender imbalance, and ‘Not 30%’ is happily part of a larger and urgent dialogue.”

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The Other Art Fair lets artists exhibit their work independently, without representation from a gallery. This allows younger, emerging artists to receive the full profits from the sale of their work.

“Not 30%” will include Sky Arts Portrait Artists of the Year 2018 Samira Addo, illustrator Hattie Stewart, and award-winning artist Sarah Maple, as well as feminist tattoo group Femme Fatale, which will be running a pop-up poke tattoo studio.

The Other Art Fair will take place October 4-7 at The College on Southampton Row in London.