Art that’s affordable to everyone on offer at this fair
Art doesn’t have to be pricey to be appealing as the Affordable Art Fair, returning soon to Brisbane, reveals.
There was never a better time for an art fair featuring art at reasonable prices. Affordable Art Fair Australian director Georgia Huestis says recent global unrest, and its domestic impacts, draw people to such events.
“Artists are important at times like this, demonstrating the places creativity can go,” says Huestis, who first worked with the Affordable Art Fair in Hong Kong. “Post-COVID, the fairs did very well … that in-person connection becomes even more important.”
This year, during the third iteration of AAF in Brisbane, May 7 to 10, 55 independent galleries and artist collectives will come together, with artworks priced between $100 and $10,000. It is Huestis’s first Brisbane fair as director, and the venue remains Brisbane Showgrounds. “This year we are growing more into the space,” she says.
Huestis expects Brisbane to deliver on AAF’s growing reputation for accessible excellence. The program includes a number of “Artists in Action” who create work at the fair, with audiences offered insight into both their processes and ideas.
Artists include Madeleine McKinlay (exhibiting with Toowoomba Gallery), whose loose gestural landscapes capture colour and atmospherics from environments all over Australia; Mark Gawne (Revival Art & Design Gallery); Brad Turner (Brad Turner Collective); and Kathleen Nanima Rambler (Artists of Ampiltawatja).
An on-site mural painted by Jason Parker during two previous fairs will be showcased on 6m-panels – “pomegranate grunge meets a moody palette” – with Parker also in residence in Brisbane.
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For Huestis, the fair is about getting conversations going directly between artists and audiences.
“It’s a relaxed atmosphere in which artists and visitors can look, talk and watch as the art develops,” she says.
An AAF novelty is the Art ATM, which operates courtesy of artist Jackie Case, someone who is not comfortable with being watched as she draws. She does, however, love the idea of making art “accessible, friendly, affordable and interactive”.
The Art ATM is a concept Case developed for AAF some years ago and it has toured to fairs all over the world. Audiences are invited to commission the artist by submitting prompts on a “credit card” (with $45) through the ATM slot. The artist, sitting inside the ATM, responds to the prompt with a unique artwork for you to take home (also delivered through the slot).
“What I’m most surprised by is how the ATM turned into something I could never have imagined,” Case says. “When first approached, I never dreamed I would visit countries like England, Hong Kong or Singapore or travel across Australia from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne performing.
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“I have seen some beautiful, kind and tender prompts. I see the performance as a small, genuine moment shared between the collector and me. This is not about recording the art process but living it, with the finished sketch as the recording … I genuinely cannot see who is writing the prompt and they cannot see inside the ATM. I treat each credit card like it was written by the most important person in the whole world – which they are.”
Galleries attending the Brisbane fair for the first time include Cascade Art Gallery from Victoria. Others to watch for include Salt Contemporary (Victoria), Rich and Strange (NSW), AM Art Gallery Collective (New Zealand) and Yellow House (NSW).
Artist collectives include Oddball Gallery, Sydney, which is presenting an eclectic mix of work by gender diverse and female artists promising nuance, colour and art that reveals “hidden narratives and perspectives”.
Brisbane’s fair falls on Mother’s Day weekend, so a strong children’s program is featured with Kaleidoscope Children’s Art Studio x Claudio Kirac (who is also exhibiting with Mint Art House).
Each fair includes access partners and this year two partners offer fine selections of First Nations work from the Northern Territory: Artists of Ampilatwatja from the Barkley region (325km northeast of Mparntwe, Alice Springs) and the established Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation from Yuendumu (since 1985). As an “Artist in Action”, Kathleen Rambler (from Artists of Ampilatwatja) will create before your eyes her finely patterned landscapes, evoking her Country.
The Young Talent program has selected Laura Pittam, winner of the Robyn Daw Scholarship by Logan Art Gallery in 2024 for works that delve into her Swiss heritage; Sian Farrell, who began as a tattoo artist; hyper realist Sophie Clews; Japanese-born photographer Mai Naito, who uses her work to immerse herself in nature; and moody Gold Coast-related scenes by Polly Dawson.
This AAF is expected to grow audiences from 2025 when 13,300 visitors spent $3.3 million on art (available to take home immediately).
The fair proviso requires that every artwork is by a living artist, so buying art here contributes to the support of artists to create a sustainable living. Whatever the audience motivation for attendance, Georgia Huestis looks forward to Brisbane’s “open enthusiasm” that sees people asking questions and developing their art interests, at every level.
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