This July, London will host The Art Conference (TAC), bringing together a programme of international keynote speakers from the worlds of technology, art and culture. The Ugly Duck, is a three-storey 19th century warehouse, in Bermondsey will be filled with film screenings, panel discussions, exhibitions and digital art installations.
“I have always wanted to encourage dialogue, critical reflection and interaction with arts and technology, striving to bring people together to connect with the arts and help break down the boundaries people often find when engaging with art. TAC will offer a series of curated, thoughtful and interconnecting presentations by representatives from the wider art world – curators, artists, collectors and art administrators. My aim is that TAC will allow the worlds of art and technology to meet and inspire each other”. Tina Ziegler Founder
The conference will present a curated selection of more than 15 international keynote speakers to include:
Dan Witz (New York, USA) is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Witz’s extraordinary, off-kilter street art has won numerous accolades and grants, exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In 2010, Gingko Press released In Plain View, a monograph documenting 30 years of Witz’s career of works created in the studio and on the street.
RJ Rushmore (New York, US) who has been exploring contemporary art as a writer, curator, photographer, arts administrator, critic, and fan since 2008, focusing on the transformative potential of art in public space. He is Editor-in-Chief of the street art blog Vandalog. He has written two books concerning street art and graffiti respectively, and spent two year’s as co-curator of The L.I.S.A. Project NYC, a
mural program in Lower Manhattan. Rushmore will be speaking about the responsibility street artists have to comment on social, environmental and political issues
Louis Jensen (London, UK) is a creative director, artist, artist liaison, producer and project manager, and is the founder of Spaying Bricks, a network of emerging and established street and graffiti artists from across the globe.
Jordan Seiler (New York, USA) is a New-York-based artist and activist who, at the beginning of the 2000s, began covering outdoor advertisements with simple patterns or blank soothing images. His works quickly developed into a critique of the social effects of advertising on the shared public psyche. The resulting debut project – Public Ad Campaign – has become a global movement of over 100 street artists.
Robert Montgomery (London, UK) is a Scottish-born, London-based sculptor and poet, known for his site-specific installations created from light and text. Often installed illegally amid industrial and urban sites, Montgomery’s installations address universal themes such as power, love and kindness with sparse language and dramatic visuals.
Maser (Ireland/ London) is from Ireland and residing in the USA, Maser creates large-scale mural work, collaborating with the likes of musician Damien Dempsey, JR, Connor Harrington and Fintan Magee. Most recently he was invited as one of 11 selected artists to produce a film accompanying the songs on U2’s 13th album.
Jose Montemayor (Mexico/ London) is an emerging Mexican photographer and visual artist, recently graduated from London College of Fashion with a masters in fashion photography. His work displays a broad spectrum of styles and subjects including fashion, documentary photography, landscapes, film, art installations, visuals for music and virtual reality experiences.
Tinsel Edwards (London, UK) is a London-based artist and co-founder of A-side B-side Gallery in Hackney Downs. In 2015, her work was selected to be part of Dismaland, Banksy’s ‘bemusement park’ in Weston-Super-Mare, a particular highlight alongside regularly held exhibitions across the UK, Germany, Austria, Poland and the USA.
Guillaume Trotin (Berlin, Germany) is the director and co-founder of Open Walls in Berlin, that focuses on Public Art. Trotin was formerly a joint curator of the renowned West Berlin Gallery and the infamous Stattbad Wedding.
Mia Grondahl (Sweden/ Egypt) splits her time between her country of birth and the Middle East. She is the co-founder of Woman on Walls and has played an important role in Egypt to empower women through the use of street art.
Dan Lewis (London, UK) is the founder and CEO of Skute. He has built a unique platform of knowledge and real-world experience in every aspect of Digital Media. He has been immersed in its evolution, working alongside many of the greats in the field. Skute aims to create new connections through content unlocked with NFC tags.
Valentina Fois (Italy / London) is an independent curator based in London, responsible for numerous exhibitions in the UK and abroad including Upfor, Portland, 2016; The Other Art Fair, London; and Art15 Global Art Fair, London. In 2010 she founded La Scatola Gallery, London, and her latest academic research on the subject of “prosumerism” has been published by the Electronic Visualisation and the Arts.
More speakers to be announced…
Exhibiting artists are Maser, Colin McMaster, Jose Montmayor, Tinsel Edwards, Will Vibes and Robert Montgomery.
The Art Conference will be at Bermondsey’s The Ugly Duck from Saturday 23rd – Sunday 24th July 2016.