London-based Queer Art Projects (QAP) is excited to announce the launch of a new commercial initiative as part of its digital branch qap.digital. Following a development period supported by the Arts Council England, the site will become the UK’s first digital platform dedicated to selling art by international LGBTQ+ artists.
qap.digital is the digital arm of QAP: an artist-led creative production company founded in 2017 by London-based artists Tuna Erdem and Seda Ergul. While qap.digital has been active as an online space since 2020, it is the first time that it will operate as a commercial platform with a view to supporting, promoting and celebrating queer art.
qap.digital was curated by Erdem, Ergul and Mine Kaplangi, web developed by Onur Yasar and designed by artist Ece Eldek. Entirely dedicated to queer art, qap.digital not only seeks to promote queer artists and themes but also to celebrate art that deviates from the norm in form, aesthetics and approach.
For its first commercial display, qap.digital presents works ranging from paintings, works on paper, sculptures and screen-printed textiles by 16 artists from over a dozen countries: Niya B, Mustafa Boğa, Nicky Broekhuysen, Elija Grybe, Nilbar Güreş, Chris Hawkes, Şafak Şule Kemancı, Tina Kohlmann, Adam Moore, Mitchell Moreno, Katarzyna Perlak, Alicia Radage, Sophie Seita, Victoria Suvoroff, Erdem Taşdelen, Funa Ye.
qap.digital’s list of featured artists is due to grow in 2023.
About qap.digital
qap.digital’s definition of queer art is not limited to “art made by queer artists” or “art that focuses on queer themes”. Queer art deviates from the norm in its form, aesthetics and approach and has an affinity with the experimental and the avant-garde, the messy, the out of order, the too much and the too little.
qap.digital envisions to be queer in every sense of the word, “differing from the norm” of the online art market by doing away with the binaries it operates on, like emerging versus established, affordable versus investable, and original versus edition.
qap.digital strives to give centre stage and exclusivity to the marginalised and tokenised members of the institutional art world, from queers to migrants.
qap.digital has a unique user friendly interface that provides each artwork with the space it needs to shine, stirring away from 3D technologies that steal the show, as well as the exclusionary, sterile “white cube” attitude of the traditional “brick” gallery and its online equivalents.
qap.digital is a curated space where the artists and their artwork is hand-picked in order to be showcased as if in an exhibition, “installing” them in a space that is both easy and enjoyable to navigate.
qap.digital believes queer art needs to be kept alive not only in the name of much needed diversity, but also in the name of perpetual creativity.
qap.digital is a space to celebrate queer art and to help it live, flourish, thrive.
About Queer Arts Projects (QAP)
QAP is a London-based artist-led creative production company that curates, produces and manages art projects including exhibitions, performances, screenings, talks and workshops. Additionally, QAP commissions new works from queer artists to reflect on contemporary issues and creates contexts that underlines their relevance and resonance. QAP was founded by London based Turkish artist duo Tuna Erdem and Seda Ergul: partners in life and work and founders of Istanbul Queer Art Collective. In collaboration with organisations such as Every Woman Biennial, Goldsmiths University and Bonington Gallery, QAP’s projects have been supported by the Arts Council England (ACE). Previous projects include House of Wisdom Nottingham, an ambitious production which brought together 44 artworks by 40 artists across four different locations in Nottingham in 2018, and #WIP: Work in Progress/Working Process, an online group exhibition featuring 37 artists selected by six curators.
