LONDON.- Returning to The Old Truman Brewery during London’s most important art week this October, Moniker Art Fair 2018 steps up its ambitions with an exciting new collaboration between two leading women driving forward the urban art scene. A first in the history of the fair, this official partnership with Urban Nation Museum will see its Director, Yasha Young, work with Moniker’s Director Tina Ziegler to present the strongest line-up of urban contemporary artists within the much-anticipated installation hall.

Firmly established as the world’s largest urban art fair, having achieved record breaking sales and audiences in 2017, Moniker has dedicated over a decade to growing this global industry. This special partnership with UNM draws attention to the cultural impact that urban art has had in recent years, and highlights its rise to prominence within the public eye and collecting worlds alike.

Urban Nation Museum’s acclaimed success marks a milestone in the rise of urban art’s popularity and long-term impact on modern culture, creating a permanent home for landmark works within the genre and giving space to artists influencing and influenced by the zeitgeist it has created. In conjunction with Moniker’s ascendance within the collecting world, interest in urban art has never been higher.

Installations, curated in collaboration with Urban Nation Museum, Berlin, will focus on social, economic and ecological injustices in line with Moniker’s 2018 ‘Uncensored’ theme, providing a platform for voices that are trying to bring about change. Without censorship, these voices can be heard. Situated in the heart of Berlin Urban Nation Museum (UNM) is the first of its kind, a large museum space dedicated to urban art.

Artists invited to create original works thus far include:

• Lek and Sowat, both members of legendary Parisian art collective DMV, who will look at the personal journeys we take, and how they’re affected by race and societal disadvantage;

• Internationally-acclaimed African artist Faith47, who began painting three years after the end of apartheid and will take on the stark impact of war;

• Emerging British star Dan Rawlings, who will leverage his unique style of scrap metal and machinery manipulation to create a human-vs-nature post-apocalyptic scenario within the installation hall and;

• Canadian Li-Hill, whose work attempts to decipher the complexities of the rapid development in our modern age. Through the western gaze he points to the devastating effects of capitalist culture on the individual psyche, his work serving as a template for the ramifications felt on a global scale.

Additionally, Italian-born VESOD will combine Renaissance art and Futurism in his works to challenge our current understanding of mental health, exhibiting alongside Ann J Lewis, an activist and artist from the USA, who will present an interactive installation that reflects on our broken governmental systems. Spanish-born and Berlin-based Vermibus specialises in challenging the public’s relationship with advertising and will create an immersive installation that focuses on our self-image formed through repetitive messages in corporate advertising.

Fair Director of Moniker Art Fair, Tina Ziegler, comments, Yasha has been pushing this scene and the artists within it for more than 20 years and has quietly been one of the cornerstones in the foundation of urban art and its growth. In partnering with Urban Nation Museum, we’re consolidating our experience. I’ve been in the thick of it 15 years myself – and making it unarguably clear that urban art is not only ‘here to stay’, it’s been changing the cultural landscape significantly for over a decade. The growth of the fair and the rapidly increasing patronage of collectors confirm that to be true.

Director of Urban Nation Museum, Yasha Young, adds, To partner with one of the most interesting art fairs at the moment and to support Director Tina Ziegler in her projects is exactly what Urban Nation as an Institution is about. Support the entire infrastructure of this eco system we call the art market and the art world with focus on Urban Contemporary Art. We don’t just support the end result but the history and the current developments and visionaries that are trying to change and contribute to art history one project , art fair , artist or exhibition at a time.

Alongside Moniker’s annual thematic installation halls, the fair will present a selected list of galleries and artists from around the world. This year, Moniker Art Fair will reduce the number of galleries exhibiting from forty to thirty, allowing more room for the very best of the burgeoning scene to create bespoke, immersive and interactive spaces. For the first time the fair will operate on an invitation only basis. Veteran artists will be given room to build open studios alongside themed group shows exhibited by both major and emerging galleries.

The fair will continue to expand its film and talk programmes, community collaborative events and exclusive music performances that have been warmly received over the past two editions.