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Arty is an independent British art fanzine started by the artist Cathy Lomax in 2001. Lomax is also the editor. Arty is for art fans written by artists themselves and published by Transition Gallery's editions department, the artist-run space in East London. [1]
Arty was founded in 2001 in London by Cathy Lomax. It is published twice a year and sold across the UK, [2] including the Tate Modern, Tate Britain and ICA in London.
Frustrated by opportunities for emerging artists to voice their opinions and concerns and inspired by zine culture, artist Cathy Lomax started Arty as an antidote to dry, critic led writing about art. The first 20 issues were photocopied and stapled and featured eclectic artist led content including reviews of contemporary art and numerous exclusive drawings from over 30 [1] prominent and emerging artists from around the world. Themes of past issues have included Entertainment, Boys, Girls, Books, Nature, Alphabet, Scandal, Our Idols, Labels and Reviews London. [3]
From issue 21 [4] the size of the magazine has increased and each issue includes a featured colour. Recent contributors have been Jessica Voorsanger, Sarah Doyle, Rachel Cattle and Gavin Toye.
Arty has featured British artist Stella Vine's drawings and art since 2003. [5] In November 2002, Vine also contributed a drawing on an envelope, Untitled (2002), to the compilation book Arty Greatest Hits [6] In Winter 2003, Vine contributed a drawing to Arty's issue number 13, in which artists were given a letter of the alphabet and asked to make a drawing related to their given letter. Vine's drawing was E is for Eggs, depicting the artist Sarah Lucas with fried eggs on her T-shirt. [5] Vine contributed a drawing Joe eating hash cakes (2004) to Arty 16: Boys [7]
In 2008, Vine was one of 20 artists invited [8] to create a tarot card for Entertainment, the 24th issue of Arty. [9] Vine contributed an acrylic painting on paper called The Tower for her tarot card.
Arty 25: Fame [10] was published in March 2009. It features Jessica Voorsanger, Harry Pye, Gavin Toye, Sarah Doyle, Kim L Pace, Cathy Lomax, Grace Morgan and Carolina Casis.
In 2002, Arty was described by journalist Dave Calhoun in Dazed & Confused magazine as "a fanzine written by artists about art—of all shapes and sizes." [11]
Arty participated in the first Publish and Be Damned [12] fair in London in 2004 and has taken part in all the subsequent PABDs
Althea Greenan, Senior Librarian of Goldsmiths College, London described Arty as "low budget" but "confident" and "sharply relevant". Contributors have included: Jasper Joffe, Stella Vine, Cathie Pilkington, Harry Pye, Cathy Lomax and Jessica Voorsanger.
A book chronicling the early history of the magazine, Arty Greatest Hits, was published in 2004. [13] The book compiled the best articles and drawings from the first 16 issues, as well as including new work made especially on the theme of Greatest Hits. [1] Articles included reviews of Tracey Emin's exhibition at White Cube gallery, [1] and thoughts on artist duo Gilbert and George. [1] Stella Vine contributed a drawing Joe eating hash cakes (2004) to Arty Greatest Hits [14]
Pamela Colman Smith, nicknamed "Pixie", was a British artist, illustrator, writer, publisher, and occultist. She is best-known for illustrating the Rider–Waite tarot deck for Arthur Edward Waite. This tarot deck became the standard among tarot card readers, and remains the most widely used today. Smith also illustrated over 20 books, wrote two collections of Jamaican folklore, edited two magazines, and ran the Green Sheaf Press, a small press focused on women writers.
Darcy Megan Stanger, better known by the pen name Dame Darcy, is an alternative cartoonist, fine artist, musician, cabaret performer, and animator/filmmaker. Her "Neo-Victorian" comic book series Meat Cake was published by Fantagraphics Books from 1993–2008. The Meat Cake Bible compilation was released in June 2016 and nominated for The Eisner Award July 2017. Vegan Love: Dating and Partnering for the Cruelty-Free Gal, with Fashion, Makeup & Wedding Tips, written by Maya Gottfried and illustrated by Dame Darcy, was the Silver Medalist winners of the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2018.
Charles Thomson is an English artist, poet and photographer. In the early 1980s he was a member of The Medway Poets. In 1999 he named and co-founded the Stuckists art movement with Billy Childish. He has curated Stuckist shows, organised demonstrations against the Turner Prize, run an art gallery, stood for parliament and reported Charles Saatchi to the OFT. He is frequently quoted in the media as an opponent of conceptual art. He was briefly married to artist Stella Vine.
Stella Vine is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting, with subjects drawn from personal life, as well as from rock stars, royalty, and other celebrities.
Cathy Lomax is a London artist, curator and director of the Transition Gallery. She is mainly known for her figurative paintings which often focus on the female image and are inspired by 'the seductive imagery of film, fame and fashion'.
Patrick Brill, better known by his pseudonym Bob and Roberta Smith, is a British contemporary artist, writer, author, musician, art education advocate, and keynote speaker. He is known for his "slogan" art, is an associate professor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University and has curated public art projects such as Art U Need. He was curator for the 2006 Peace Camp and created the 2013 Art Party to promote contemporary art and advocacy. His works have been exhibited and are in collections in Europe and the United States. Brill co-founded The Ken Ardley Playboys and hosts the Make Your Own Damn Music radio show.
Alex Michon is a British artist and writer, based in London, who runs the Transition Gallery in Hackney with Cathy Lomax.
Go West is the title of the first exhibition by Stuckist artists in a commercial London West End gallery. It was staged in Spectrum London gallery in October 2006. The show attracted media interest for its location, for the use of a painting satirising Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate gallery, and for two paintings of a stripper by Charles Thomson based on his former wife, artist Stella Vine.
Harry William Pye is a British artist, writer, and event organizer.
The Crimes Town Gallery in Stoke Newington ran between July 2007 and March 2010. The gallery was run by Gavin Toye and Ben Newton who are both artists. It existed in the Sea Cadets building on Stoke Newington High St. In May 2008 Toye and Newton staged "Walpurgisnacht" at their gallery, a group show featuring artists such as Cathy Lomax, James Unsworth and Sarah Sparkes. Walpurgisnacht is traditionally the biggest Witches Sabbath of the year, the time when the forces of the supernatural meet with the mortal world. This show was previewed in the Guardian Guide by Jessica Lack.
The Rosy Wilde gallery was an artist-run project space, established in 2003 by British artist Stella Vine in a former butcher's shop below her house in east London, to showcase work by emerging artists. The gallery was not making money and Vine was expecting bailiffs, when one of her paintings of Diana, Princess of Wales, was bought by art collector Charles Saatchi to star in his New Blood show. This solved Vine's financial problems. The gallery was sold at auction in October 2004 and, in 2006, Vine opened a gallery of the same name in central London's Soho district. It closed some time later.
The Rebel is an independent British art magazine established by artist Harry Pye in 1985. It features interviews, reviews with artists, and parodies of features from other publications. Often the cover of the magazine features an image of a rebel from history such as Jesus, Karl Marx, Valerie Solanas, or Van Gogh. In December 2007 The Rebel made fun of ArtReview's annual list of the most powerful people in the art world. In August 2008 an entire issue of The Rebel was dedicated to the number four.
Jessica Voorsanger is an American artist and academic, living and working in London. She has worked on the "Mystery Train" project for the Institute of Contemporary Arts to make contemporary art more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Her work has been exhibited more than two dozen times with her husband, fellow artist Patrick Brill, best known as Bob and Roberta Smith.
The Free Art Fair was an exhibition of contemporary art works and performance art that took place in London in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Each fair culminated with all the art works being given away at the end. Jasper Joffe, the founder, claims he set up the fair to "do something different from what everyone else is doing at this time of year and non-commercial, and something that excites people and values art not selling."
Cab Gallery was an art project from 1999 to 2001 curated by London art dealer Paul Stolper of Paul Stolper Gallery and art collector and London taxi driver Jason Brown. The concept was for art to be exhibited on the outside and inside of a working London taxi rather than a traditional gallery space. As stated by Brown, "It was important to me that when working, the artwork was incidental to the journey of the passenger. I hoped they would notice but it was part of their environment and unexpected. It was also interesting to me to learn which artworks they reacted to. But it had to be a natural discovery."
Peckham Platform is a public art gallery in London that commissions and exhibits work by contemporary artists, usually in collaboration with local community groups.
Sophie Hicks is a British architect and former fashion editor.
Susie Hamilton is an English artist. She lives and works in London and is represented by Paul Stolper Gallery.