A London fair is seeking to reverse centuries of gender imbalance in the art world by giving women artists their own platform.
The Women in Art Fair, launched in 2023, opens at the central Mall Galleries on October 9 to coincide with Frieze Week, a major contemporary art event in the British capital.
“With the art industry for the past couple of centuries … the prices of women’s work has been less than men [and] the level of opportunity for artists to be taken up by galleries has been less than men,” fair director Jacqueline Harvey said.
“I came from a gallery situation and we were being bombarded by large numbers of female artists seeking representation.”
Some of the most recent data shows art by women represented only 3.3 per cent of global auction sales between 2008 and mid-2022, according to the 2022 Burns Halperin Report, which covered representation in US museums and the art market.