For those who are tired of the sterile hallways of the art market—where price tags fly high and conversations happen in whispers—things are turning completely upside down this Saturday in the New Wing of Somerset House Studios. Taking place for the fourth time on June 6, The Artists’ Fair is an experimental space for exchange, conversation, and production that completely dismantles the commercial art fair logic we know. This one-day gathering, where admission operates on a pay-what-you-can basis, brings the audience and the artist side-by-side directly at the booths and in the midst of heated debates, without the thick barricades put up by galleries.
The defining hallmark of this year’s fair is that it transcends the boundaries of the venue to merge with radio waves floating through the air. The experimental publishing and performance platform Montez Press Radio will set up a temporary studio in Somerset House’s River Rooms and broadcast live all day long. The sounds, rustles of brushes, and philosophical discussions catching your ear as you wander through the space will simultaneously flow into the capillaries of the digital world; meaning even those who cannot be physically present will be able to join this acoustic chaos from behind their screens. The booths at the center will be bursting at the seams with the boundary-pushing works of the studio’s interdisciplinary community; this is a marketplace where raw ideas are shared, not showcase objects.
The day’s program is woven with works that point a finger directly at the dilemmas of today’s world and the economic realities of art. In the reading session titled Today’s Letters, newly commissioned letters freshly penned by artists in response to the spirit, crises, and excitements of the exact present moment will be read aloud. Immediately following this literary confrontation, the schedule shifts to that gray area where dreams collide with utility bills: The Violence of Money panel. Lina Džuverović and Kathrin Böhm will dissect the harsh and naked realities of an artist surviving financially and balancing the books without being crushed by the gears of the market.
For those who do not want to leave the matter purely in theory, the Studio Outlaws: Working Off the Record session comes into play. Hannah Perry, Kwake Bass, and Mark Leckey will discuss working off the record, back-alley productions outside the mainstream, and creative piracy, drawing from the b-sides exhibition Perry recently organized at Calcio in Bermondsey. If you want to experience the fair as a living installation rather than getting lost on your own in the crowd, you can join The Walk, an audio journey guided by Tara Fatehi. Through the ends of headphones, Fatehi will weave a completely improvised sound map whose direction shifts with every step by interacting with the people, objects, materials, and instantaneous sounds in the venue.
The fair’s seriousness is broken up by playful and collective workshops. Spaghetti Club will host a DIY zine workshop, bringing together young creatives aged 7 to 10 to produce their own independent fanzines from scratch, thus seeding the rebellious artists of the future early on. For adults, the most playful moment of the day will take place during the Let’s Collab, Babe! gathering. Designed so that new partnerships, unexpected artistic flirtations, and joint projects can sprout, this creative networking session is an open door for anyone tired of studio loneliness. Dropping by Somerset House on Saturday, June 6, between 12:00 and 18:00 means not just looking at art, but directly touching the noise, money, labor, and sound inside its kitchen.
Event Details:
- Event: The Artists’ Fair (4th Edition)
- Venue: Somerset House Studios (New Wing & River Rooms), London
- Date: Saturday, June 6, 2026
- Time: 12:00 – 18:00
- Admission: Pay what you can / Donations welcome
- Key Highlights: Montez Press Radio live broadcast, The Violence of Money panel, Studio Outlaws talk, Tara Fatehi’s interactive audio walk, and DIY zine workshops.
