2017 |

For 2017, Moniker Art Fair has undergone an exciting evolution, tripling in size to accommodate 40 gallery stands, a young galleries initiative, a benefit auction, an industry conference, a curated film programme, a VIP programme and a New York style pizza restaurant.
While Moniker has previously venue-shared with The Other Art Fair, this October they moved to a new floor of the Old Truman Brewery as they boldly re-instate their dominance on the East End arts hub, focusing this year on the origins of urban art.

Few art forms rely on collectives and collaborations as much as urban art; born in the dust of the locomotive age as far back as 1914, it has evolved to see modern-day monikers spring up on walls worldwide, shifting in style and message as international artists meet and influence each other. Just over a century later, Moniker Art Fair remembers where it all began, taking visitors on a journey from the root of the burgeoning international street art scene and its importance today.

Moniker’s eighth edition titled ‘Transient Tales’ is dedicating more than 9,000-square-foot of space to immersive art installations. Upon entering visitors discover an installation by documentarian, photographer and film editor Bill Daniel featuring a train track and a tunnel.

Moniker welcomes the best of contemporary and urban art galleries from across the world, showcasing artists working beyond norms and conventions. The UK is represented by the likes of returning exhibitors Stolen Space, RISE, Jealous Gallery and Curious Duke Gallery as well as debuts from Well Hung Gallery and BleachBox Gallery. Meanwhile, international galleries debuting include Thinkspace Gallery from California, Station16 Gallery from Montreal and Gallery Itinerrance from France.

Few artists also painted murals in the surrounding streets of the Moniker Art Fair, like Dutch duo Telmo & Miel.

In parallel Moniker also gives the opportunity to showcase younger galleries like UK-Art from Japan, Jewel Goodby Contemporary and 1963 Gallery from the UK.

A special section has been dedicated to installations by Ian Kualii and large photographs by Alex Fakso to name a few.

In terms of results, Moniker reports record-breaking sales figures from its opening night, having sold around £300,000 of art on its preview day. The Californian Thinkspace Gallery, who had eight booths and three artist solo shows sold out two solo shows by artists Audrey Kawasaki and Kevin Peterson over £100,000 worth of sales in the first five hours.

The Art Conference, Talks & Short Film Programme featured films by Lek & Sowat, and talks by Vermibus.

View the full set of pics here

Next step will be New York, as Director Tina Ziegler announced earlier that Moniker New York will have its inaugural edition at the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse in Brooklyn from May 3 to 6 2018, to coincide with Frieze New York, and she hopes the art fair will continue to grow over the next five years.

Moniker Art Fair
5-8 October 2017
Truman Brewery London

The city of Stavanger in Norway is getting ready for the world leading street art festival, NuArt. For its 17th edition, the festival will take place from the 31 st of August until the 3rd of September, with their indoor exhibition at Tou Scene staying on view through the 15th of October.

This year’s theme is POWER and through their work, the artists will discuss who has it, who doesn’t and how street art can challenge established power structures. “Nuart’s programs are designed specifically to explore and silently challenge the mechanisms of power and politics in public space” says Nuart Festival Founder and Director, Martyn Reed, and adds “This year’s Nuart Festival will bring together a diverse combination of artists, activists and academics to reflect upon the fluidity of this transgressive new movement.”

12 artists from 10 countries spanning 4 continents will descend upon Stavanger: Ampparito (ES), Bahia Shehab (EG), Carrie Reichardt (UK), flyingleaps presents Derek Mawudoku (UK), Ian Strange (AU), John Fekner (US), Know Hope (IL), ±maismenos± (PT), Igor Ponosov (RU), Ricky Lee Gordon (ZA), Slava Ptrk (RU) , Vermibus (DE).

American artist John Fekner created a series of environmentally conceptual works consisting of words, symbols, and dates spray painted throughout the five boroughs of New York in the 1970s. He continued these text based interventions over the next few decades and earned a place in numerous museum collections across the US and Europe.

British ‘craftivist’ Carrie Reichardt blurs the boundaries between craft and activism, using the techniques of muralism, mosaics and screen-printing to create intricate, highly-politicised works of art. Active in community and public art projects for over 15 years, she has been designing and consulting on large-scale mosaic murals in various local communities.

Israli artist Addam Yekutieli aka Know Hope is best known for his emotive work that mixes written word and illustrative elements or photographs and even sculptures. Through his distinctive work, he often makes connections between difficult social-political situations and emotional conditions

±MaisMenos± is the working title of an interventional art project by Portuguese visual artist and graphic designer Miguel Januário that started back in 2005 and became an entity of its own. As a part of this project, Januário has been producing thought-provoking, cutting-edge work both indoors and outdoors in a variety of media – from video to sculptural installations to painting and performance.

Aside from creating and showing new works by the participating artists, the festival will include its well known satellite program Nuart Plus consisting of academic and industry debates, artist presentations, film screenings, workshops and guided tours.

NuArt Festival
Until 15 October
Tou Scene
Kvitsøygata 25
4014 Stavanger, Norway