CAVE fair lays on 45 dynamic artists to accompany Liverpool Biennial

Fair Preview: CAVE, Baltic Creative Campus, Liverpool, until September 16 2012

The city’s Biennial might be all the rage in Liverpool this week, but the enthusiastic duo behind this fair – Flis Mitchell and Kevin Hunt, a pair of artists and curators usually based at artist-led gallery The Royal Standard – have come up with a worthy independent counterpoint to one of the world’s finest art festivals.

They want it to be a new model for fairs, welcoming 45 dynamic unrepresented artists who will pocket all of the proceeds from the modestly-priced works on show.

“We feel that the time is right for something different,” explains Mitchell, whose exhibition is also a fee-less one for its participants.

“We want it to be an ambitious and exciting commercial addition at the time of the festival.”

“People will be able to buy something bespoke, handmade and original for less than many factory-produced blips on the high street,” adds Hunt.

“It means they can engage directly with the artists who made the work.”

Painting, drawing, sculpture and film all play their part, as well as performances, a series of secret talks and, somewhat enticingly, the promise of “urban shamanic rituals.”

Contributors include former Jerwood Drawing Prize winner and Studio Voltaire resident Frances Stacey, Royal Standard Director Sam Venables, and Pil and Galia Kollectiv, regulars at London and Israeli galleries with works such as Asparagus: A Horticultural Ballet (a film communication through the medium of the vegetable) to their name.

• Baltic Creative Campus, Jamaica Street, Liverpool. Open 6pm-12am Thursday; 11am-11pm Friday; 11am-6pm Saturday; 11am-12am Sunday. Admission free.
  
  Visit CAVE online, on Twitter and on Facebook. Read our Preview of the Liverpool Biennial.
  

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