A whole load of images and a word or two from last week’s Art Car Boot Fair, words that appeared on the Organ website three days after the event….

Oh look, it happened three days ago, old news by now I know, but we surely can’t just let something as good as that go by without documenting it in some kind of way can we? The 2018 London Art Car Boot Fair happened three days back in the glorious sunshine of Granary Square over at Kings Cross. I make no secret about how much I love being invited to be part of the Art Car Boot Fair, as an artist I love the buzz of it all, I love the interaction, the conversations, the way that, for one day at least, art lets his or her hair down and smiles just a little more than it usually does. Was that the best one yet? Who knows, impossible to say, things are changing, times are changing, London’s changing, the landscape that art exists in has changed almost beyond recognition in the last ten years. Galleries have gone, whole streets of galleries have gone, attitudes have gone, artists have had to go, things are changing, not so united, developers rule the roost now, these are different days. The Art Car Boot Fair is of course rooted in the days just beyond the 90’s and those almost lost days of the YBAs, the fair is a thing that evolved out of the artist-run East End, that almost lost London art scene of the turn of the century before the estate agents got greedy, the coffee drinkers moved in and the developers destroyed so many of the spaces and the places where art happened and people gathered. London is changing, impossible to compare the Art Car Boot Fair of 2018 with the fair of a dozen years ago, impossible to even try to compare then and now, but there ‘s an argument that says that, in many many positive ways, this year’s fair was the best Art Car Boot Fair ever.

There ‘s an argument that says that, in many many positive ways, this year’s fair was the best Art Car Boot Fair ever, it certainly seemed like it was busier than ever, that the lines to get in were bigger than ever, that there were more people and more interest than ever, that people kept on coming in throughout the day. And look at King’s Cross now, where have all the crack dealers, the prostitutes and the undercover coppers gone? Is this really where Bagley’s Warehouse was? Are these the same streets you had to almost battle though to get to the venues back there? Are you sure? Don’t like what they’ve done with those gasholders over there but hey, I Guess not everything the developers do is bad, good to see the actual warehouse buildings are still here and being used rather than just knocked down to make way for more arrogant glass towers, are you sure this is King’s Cross? Really? .

Was it the best Art Car Boot Fair ever? Who cares if it was or not, it really doesn’t matter does it? From where we were stood it felt like it was easily as good as ever, it was certainly as busy as ever, as positive and buzzing as ever, and yes, we had a great time selling lots of art to lots of happy positive engaging people, we had a great day, I think most people did. .

And so, three days on, and almost too late, here’s a fractured photo and a taste or two of the view from the Cultivate “boot”. Truth is we didn’t really get to escape from our boot that much all day, things were rather full on and wonderfully non-stop from start to finish. Not so many photos of other people and their art this year (sorry), and no, we didn’t get anywhere near seeing everything or everyone, we didn’t photograph everything, we did have and excellent day, met lots of good people, made lots of sales, sales are always a welcome thing,.I love taking part in the annual Art Car Boot Fair

The “Why Cheap Art Manifesto?” isn’t my piece of art but I did have it pasted up as on the stall as part of my presentation at the Fair, I had a great day selling original paintings and pieces of art for the price of a good loaf of bread, art really should be for all and not just for those who can afford to pay the often ridiculous gallery prices. I loved selling the hundred parts of this year’s Hundred Pieced Piece, one piece of art in one hundred parts, each piece, each painting, sold for just one pound – love the photos of the people with their pieces. Three says ob then, I’m not going to attempt to review the whole thing or try to workout what Gavin Turk was doing on his bike or what Pure Evil was printing or what the Binnie Sisters had made this year – there was art everywhere, art for everyone, so many pieces of good-looking art, and good to see lots of new artists making their Art Car Boot Fair debuts in the September sunshine. What a great day, DJs played, people painted, people performed, people people-watched, dogs dog-watched, people played pianos, people danced, ate food, smiles at each other, oh look, it happened three days ago, old news now I know, but we surely can’t just let something as good as that just go by without documenting it in some kind of way can we? The 2018 London Art Car Boot Fair was another rousing success, a day when art got most things right, I like it when art gets it mostly right, who cares if it was as good as it was last time or if this was the best one, things evolve, London’s evolving, art is evolving, it was a great day, taken us three days to recover, hopefully see you next year if we get invited again that is, what great day, art excites… (sw)

Click on an images to enlarge or to run the fractured slide show, the photos are mostly taken from the Cultivate boot by the Cultivate team on their mostly broken phones, hey, don’t moan, we’re painters, not photographers. The security guard who bought a piece of the Hundred Pieced Piece said we could only post his photo if he “looked fly enough”…..