This year is the debut of what is set to be another big hitter on the October Art week scene, Sluice Art Fair.
Named in honour of the underground Tyburn River that connects it to the site of the Frieze Art Fair. Sluice aims to provide an alternative gauge for the current of contemporary art by showcasing non-profit artist-run galleries and projects from the UK and beyond. Sited in a generous space just off Bond Street, the debut Sluice Art Fair is a forum for the most exciting, challenging and innovative British and international art being made today.
Set up by lecturer, curator and writer Ben Street (Art Review, The National Gallery, The Saatchi Gallery) and artist Karl England (Reside residency, Morph Plinth), Sluice will highlight the work of emerging, non-profit and artist-run galleries.
Sluice was born of Street and England’s desire to provide an accessible survey of high quality but under-exposed galleries in a forum that is appropriate for each gallery’s needs. Sluice’s open plan layout and avoidance of the booth format familiar from other art fairs will encourage creative and dynamic interactions between works of art. Sluice will be housed in two rooms (one 3335 square foot, the other 410 square foot) in The Music Room on South Molton Lane, fifteen minutes’ walk from the Frieze Art Fair and the West End gallery district.
Its program of accessible and engaging events will encourage interaction between artists, galleries and the public. Programming during Sluice will include a panel discussion with speakers Jasper Joffe (Free Art Fair), Cathy Lomax (Transition Gallery) and Alistair Gentry (Market Project), art-making workshops for children, a schedule of live performances, artists’ film screenings and a bookstand selling the latest artists’ publications.
Saturday 12 – 10
Sunday 12 – 9
26 South Molton Lane
