23/09/2021 QUEEN & COUNTRY

Artwork by Susie Hamilton

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE SIXTH OF NOVEMBER!

ACBF ANNOUNCES NEW AUTUMN EVENT: THE QUEEN & COUNTRY EDITION
PREMIUM ACCESS FROM 10AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 6TH
EVENT ENDS ON MONDAY NOVEMBER 8TH

THE ACBF team are delighted to be bringing you an exciting new event this Autumn with the thought provoking theme Queen & Country. With the world seemingly in disarray and society facing a myriad of challenges to the status quo, the ACBF have thrown down the gauntlet to our invited list of over 200 artists to respond (if they so wish) to our Queen & Country theme, confident that it will provoke and inspire all manner of artistic responses to the state we are all in with a superabundance of talent working across all mediums. Icons, myths, crowns, multifarious queens, jewels, sceptres, bizarre and witty commemorative pieces, cultural tropes and ironies, processions, curious coats of arms, pomp, absurdities, gilded beauty and punkish subversions will abound.

Artwork by Helen A Pritchard

The phrase Queen & Country is commonly used to denote that a member of the military is prepared to die for his/her country and is associated with qualities of honour, loyalty and the defence of our freedoms, our democracy.  Yet we are increasingly in a situation where overt patriotism seem more aligned with aberrant far right ideologies, with our own monarchy -in- distress, a chaotic isolationist cabinet barely distinguishable from their satirical Spitting Image versions. At the same time TV series The Crown is sweeping up all the awards and the brilliant Guardian sketch writers John Crace and Hyde have boundless material.

Early out of the blocks with works for Queen & Country, and a sign of so many great things to come, are: Susie Hamilton's fabulously absurd and grotesquely comic processions of dignitaries, clergy and royalty under the heading (from Shakepeares’s Henry V) ‘O Ceremony show me but thy worth’; Haus of Lucys hilariously irreverent takes on commemorative memorabilia; Helen A Pritchard’s exquisite new set of works on paper - like Rorschach coats of arms; Catherine Lette’s new paintings and Christian Furr’s green diamond dusted ‘Green & Pleasant Land’.

Artwork by Julia Maddison

We're returning to a ticket per event system to gain first day access to all the wonderful art and artists and we have a limited number of tickets available at just £12 (rather than the standard £15) on sale today so book your early access to our resplendent Queen & Country event, the rumblings from the studios is that this will be our most exciting, subversive and thrilling art spectacular yet! 

The Queen & Country event will be exclusively online this November and we are delighted to be able to announce that we are planning our return to live events next May.

The Art Car Boot Fair is the most original, affordable, exciting, eclectic and talent packed art fair going. ACBF live events have provided a commission free space for an invited line-up of artists to sell their work since 2004 and we have developed a stunning, bespoke event site to take us through the pandemic and beyond. The Art Car Boot Fair is traditionally the day the artists let their hair down and make special art works accessible to all at special just for the day prices. Your ticket guarantees premium access to all the fabulous art bargains on the first day of the fair plus an enthralling and engaging Programme of the Day and live links directly into the Artists Studios. 

We’ll be announcing our full line-up over the next couple of weeks and posting tempting preview images on our insta feed.