LONDON.- Responding to the pre-pandemic art market, and inspired by recent, transformative developments in the ways we live, work and use technology, Robin Woodhead, former CEO and Chairman of Sotheby’s International, created The Stand to support artists’ incomes and charitable organisations as well as giving art collectors access to rising talents.

Through the online marketplace Invaluable, The Stand will produce themed, curated auctions of works by emerging and mid-career artists. Artists along with their galleries or agents receive 70% of the sale price, with 20% going to partner charities and 10% to The Stand to cover costs. By properly rewarding artists and enabling them to donate to social causes, their best work is submitted for auction. As a form of social impact investing, The Stand offers the dual purpose of supporting artists and also the causes they care about. Curators will originate from across the creative industries including music, fashion and lifestyle such as British designer Faye Toogood.

By creating a mutually beneficial online community and by connecting collectors at the point of sale with the artist The Stand will act as a window of discovery to rising talents. Running from 19-21 May inclusive, The Stand’s inaugural auction ‘The Female Gaze’ celebrates artists who identify as female, non-binary or genderless and specifically artists that explore the female form, a subject traditionally colonised by men. Artworks for auction range from an NFT by internationally exhibited genderless and anonymous art collective Goldentailx, whose work reconfigures the male gaze in the music video industry, a new portrait by Max Mara Prize winning artist Emma Hart in the form of two Emoji style thumbs and a large- scale work on paper by Nina Mae Fowler that interrogates themes of celebrity, beauty, power and sexuality. The full list artists taking part are: Shadi Al-Atallah, Zoe Buckman, Gill Button, Delphine Diallo, Nina Mae Fowler, Goldentailx, Rachel Goodyear, Margarita Gluzberg, Emma Hart, Anna Liber Lewis, Lady Skollie, Frances Waite. Estimates will begin at around £1,000.

Robin Woodhead, Founder of The Stand says, ‘From the start of the pandemic charities and artists have suffered huge income losses. We were convinced that the capital in the art market could do more to support both artists and organisations in need and this was the genesis of The Stand. I could not be more pleased to have Beth Greenacre on our team, driving The Stand forward and curating our first sale.’

Beth Greenacre, Curator and Director of The Stand says, ‘During 2020, many artists I knew at early stages of their careers struggled to make ends meet and the share of female artists in the primary market decreased. At the same time charities asked for further support from the arts sector. The Stand is our solution to these problems. It will be an online and transparent way to collect art, discover new talents and support the causes we all care about.’

The Stand’s partner charities for the first auction will be Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC), Hoxton Gardenware and Women for Women International along with founding charity partner KHULA Education, which provides educational support for under served, rural communities in South Africa. Future themed auctions will take place on a regular basis. An auction in September will be dedicated to arts education in support of the Courtauld Institute of Art, curated by a graduate.