Whatever your feelings about this upcoming season, we can probably all agree that if you’re spending your cash, better do it supporting ARTISTS than lining the already heaving pockets of SPAMAZON and the like. So without further ado, here’s what’s caught our eye of late from independent artists, makers and thinkers. Some of these are people that we’ve worked with in the recent and distant past. With some the link is BIRMINGHAM / THE MIDLANDS. Some were recommended to us by pals (credited where relevant) And with others we just came across them and really liked what they were doing.
So, and in no particular order – go dive in…
You may have seen the Unbound team at Fierce Festival 2024 – they were at our festival hub aaall week slinging the best in live art books to our insatiable festival goers. If you missed them, they have a fully stocked online store with more titles than you can shake a stick at – we may be biased, but we recommend the companion book to Common Salt by Sue Palmer and Sheila Ghelani – which featured at Fierce Festival this year.
Over on Sheila’s website, she has some beautiful companion books and artefacts from her work for sale. We particularly love these Glass Hearts which were used in her Covet Me Care For Me performance.
Cast your minds back to Artists Behind Bars 2024… If you were there, you’ll definitely remember Tat Vision’s Pre-Loved Bar, where the iconic (and much missed!) Cilla Black came back from the dead for one night only to host a tatty version of Blind Date. Tat’s online store has some brilliant personalise-able art in his signature style, in particular we love this Christmas Bauble WITH YOUR CHOICE OF FACE ON IT.
Fellow Brummie artist Dion Kitson – who joined Tat behind the Preloved bar – is also coming through with the goods this festive season. We (ahem, Pip) are coveting this Monster Munch ring if anyone wants to buy it for us (her)?
Another Fierce Festival 2024 alumni, J Neve Harrington has some lovely print-based things for sale – we love the Screen Saver Series 500 Piece Puzzle – the perfect gift for anyone that wants to avoid having to speak to family over the festive season. Plus, 10% of the profits go to The Outside Project, supporting LGBT+ folks experiencing homelessness.
Sketch Avenue – aka Ayesha Bibi – is a Brummie ceramicist and print maker who makes beautifully bold, colourful and fun work. Whilst she doesn’t have an online shop, you can find her at loads of Brum makers markets over the coming weeks – find out where and when over at her Instagram @sketchavenue_.
Handmade earrings featuring everyone’s favourite floozy, by Brum-based illustrator and artist Liu Mengxia. You can find her on Insta @liu.mengxia and she has an account specifically for her wares over at @theorderofthings_).
The Queer Arab Glossary is the first published collection of Arabic LGBTQ+ slang, edited by Marwan Kaabour and containing some beautiful illustrations by Haitham Haddad, as well as contributions from leading queer Arab artists, academics, activists and writers. This one won’t be here in time for the 25/12 as it’s yet to be published, but you can pre-order it here.
We’re OBSESSED with these nipple sculptures and wearables by Alicia Radage. The sculptures are almost sold out, but the nipples have yet to be shared on their Instagram (which is how they’re selling them – DM to enquire), so give them a follow and keep your eyes peeled for a latex nipple appearing on your feed! Thank you to our pal Karl Taylor for the intel on this one, j’adore!
Eleanor Sikorski is a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker and comics artist – who has some of their short comics (and prints) for sale. We’re particularly drawn to Oil Field – which is ‘nearly-silent’ and gives the reader a (brief) moment to pause and reflect. Shout out to Francis from Goethe Institute who let us know about this one.
How great are these Portland Pigeons? A series of flat bottomed birds which have been lovingly created over at The Portland Inn Project CIC in Stoke, as part of their regular Pigeon Club production sessions. The one pictured below is the Pip!
We’re big fans of the performance work of Glasgow-based Adam and Gillian, who we nominated for and were awarded the Action Hero Fellowship, and love these prints of theirs which play with modernist forms and the suprematist movement.
Following on with the print theme, we love these from Tim Spooner – whose incredible scenography work you may remember from The Making of Pinocchio at Fierce Festival 2022, and Princess Picnic Promenade, part of our Healing Gardens of Bab programme at Birmingham Festival 2022.
For the literary and mycology-minded amongst you, these grow your own mushroom kits by The Language of Growing are a perfect gift. The Eat Your Words kit encourages you to recycle a book to grow your mushrooms from. We hear they’re particularly keen on Nordic Noir.
And continuing the nature theme the brilliant We Go Outside Too are on a mission to introduce the raw and authentic beauty of nature to marginalised communities throughout Birmingham, the Black Country and the West Midlands to improve their well-being. They do this by integrating mental and physical well-being therapy with outdoor activities. You can purchase gift cards to ‘sponsor a walker’, which gives opportunity for an individual to attend one of their upcoming walks.
Our friends and neighbours in the JQ – Point Two Five – are a Birmingham-based company that sell one-of-a-kind jewellery by leading international artists and designers. We’re coveting these Bic Pen Lids by Daniel Eatock.
Joshua Serafin – whose performance ‘Pearls’ was one of the highlights of Fierce Festival 2024 – has a selection of gorgeous mixed media over on their website. Prices are available on request. We particularly like these collage pieces.
Why buy when you can borrow? We love what they’re doing over at Birmingham Resistance Library – a site of thinking, planning, imagining and activating modes of resistance. Every two months they hold Browse, Borrow, Return sessions at the Old Print Works. You can borrow one book at a time and keep it for up to two months. They also accept book donations to their ever-growing collection if you’d like to give rather than receive.
Our mates over at Grand Union have a community programme called The Growing Project, a transformative community programme using art making, gardening, cooking and simply being together as a way of offering support and friendship to people passing through difficult times. These Digbeth Pots have been made as part of their collaboration with Modern Clay, who worked with residents of Hagley Lodge and St. Anne’s hostel to design the motifs which adorn them.
And last but by no means least, this photographic work by former Fierce Festival Artistic Director, Harun Morrison, is available to purchase over at the Eastside Projects webshop. It depicts Stair Dance, a sculpture as a reconstruction of a dance prop used by US dancer Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson (1878–1949).
