Matthew Burrows Selects
Exhibition
Exhibition dates: 10 September — 2 October 2021
Opening: Thursday, 9 September 5-9PM
Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop is excited to announce yet another great collaboration. “Matthew Burrows Selects” is an exhibit celebrating the renowned and hugely successful Artist Support Pledge and its founder Matthew Burrows MBE.
Matthew Burrows has kindly agreed to make a selection from artists utilising The Artist Support Pledge. We will invite each of the artists to submit works for exhibit here in our west London gallery. We will choose works from the studio of each of the selected artists that will hang alongside the Artist Support Pledge available pieces. Supporting artists is foundational to our organisation, how better to demonstrate than to highlight the amazing initiative of Mathew Burrows OBE -The Artist Support Pledge. The extraordinary popularity and success of Artist Support Pledge has shed light upon and proven that artists can have direct access to selling and buyers can find works and collect at an affordably. Often the best ideas are the most uncomplicated and unburdened – the genius of Artist Support Pledge is just that, easy and without obligation. It is estimated that the Artist Support Pledge has transacted nearly 100m in sales creating needed income for artists throughout the pandemic and beyond. All through our experience here in the gallery, we have been studying and researching how to support artists, the Artist Support Pledge has been a beacon leading our determination to find ways to fund our programmes without burdening the artists. Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop with the help of Arts Council England has developed a new art world community Fair Art Fair, that is completely aligned with Artist Support Pledge in that it is a platform to connect buyers to artists with 0% commission, as well as providing professional tools and communication to support artists to have agency and consumers to be liberated.
Matthew Burrows MBE
Matthew Burrows MBE is an artist living and working in the UK, he currently lives and works in East Sussex. He studied as an undergraduate at Birmingham School of Art in 1990-93 and graduated with a Master’s degree in painting from the Royal College of Art London 1995. He is currently represented by Vigo Gallery London. Burrows speaks of subsistence, dependent on and arising from the ground at his feet. His relationship with place is one of dwelling and ritual, a process of mythologizing, of drawing meaning from the particularities of the environment and his movement in and through it. Awards and prizes include 2016-19 Artist Fellow University of Chichester, 1999-2000 Artist in Residence, Gloucester Cathedral, 1999-2000; 2006 John Moores 24 Prize Winner, 2006, Artist’s Residency, National Gallery, London 2000-2001.
Artist Support Pledge
Artist Support Pledge (ASP) is a culture and economy in support of artists and makers established and led by artist Matthew Burrows on 16th March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now a global movement of connected communities committed to an equitable and sustainable economy for artist and makers of all countries, media and ethnicities. The project uses social media platform Instagram, which is a popular platform for artists to post images and share their work. Artists and makers can post their images using #artistsupportpledge giving details of their works and price (no more than £200 or equivalent). If people are interested in buying, they message (DM) the artist. Anyone can buy the work and artists don’t need permission to join.
Every time an artist reaches £1,000 of sales, they pledge to buy £200 of work from other artist(s).
ASP sets a remarkable example, showing how a generous culture behaves and exploring the values that maintain its ethos. At the core of this is a commitment to equality of opportunity FOR ALL and an accessible platform to participate.
Fair Art Fair
Fair Art Fair, a new app-based digital platform that facilitates relationships between everyone interested in Art in a confident transparent environment. Whoever you Art you will find a place to explore and discover, buy and sell, organise and document, communicate and be supported. Now availble in Beta, sign up here.