"Throughout history, artists have both made and collected art. Everyone from Vincent van Gogh to Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol has done it. Swapping art with your contemporaries is a way of showing mutual respect, exchanging ideas, and building your own library of artistic inspiration. For a long time, swapping art was mainly done during private studio visits or over dinner conversations but more and more we are beginning to see a rise in interest and importance of open group art swaps.

Whilst it’s easy to take the shortcut and click ‘save’ on Instagram or take a screenshot of somebody else’s art online, it provides only a very shallow interaction. We miss out on the key component behind that artwork – the actual artist! That’s why I’ve decided to create the Art for Artists event, where artists can come together and spend the evening discussing each other’s art, swapping art, sharing ideas, meeting a potential future collaborator, or just re-immerse themselves back into the art scene after the difficult years of Covid isolation."