Jake and Dinos Chapman Plan Crowd-Funded Show

The Jerwood Gallery, where the Chapman Brothers show will be held if enough money is raised. Photo via Art Fund

British visual art duo Jake and Dinos Chapman, like many artists and institutions who want to have an art show without throwing down the cash, plan to crowd-fund an exhibition in their hometown of Hastings, East Sussex. According to the Guardian, to sweeten the pot, they’ve discussed rewarding donors with hand-drawn permanent tattoos. After all, what patron of the arts doesn’t want to wear a piece of their collection on their sleeve? It’s worth noting that the duo originally pitched the idea to the Frieze Art Fair, but was turned down due to some pretty obvious health code concerns.

The artists are using the UK’s Art Fund to gather a budget for the exhibition at Jerwood Gallery, which director Liz Gilmore promises will be their “biggest baddest show yet.” The brothers’ Art Fund page describes the proposed idea thusly:

The exhibition will present a new, previously unseen body of work by the Brothers Grimm of the art world and will feature works commissioned exclusively for the exhibition. The Chapmans will scour the antique emporiums and junk shops of Hastings for old artworks that will then be “fixed” by the brothers in their signature anarchic style.

The Chapmans themselves had some more colorful things to say about it: “We will be seeking out the dark underbelly of Hastings, to find its seething evil. And then we’re going to tickle it,” mused Jake. They also stated sarcastically that these were the only circumstances under which they would be returning home to see their “mum and dad.” In order for this homecoming to come to fruition, the tattoo-hungry public must kick in £25,000 ($42,000) over the next 76 days.


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