Poor Artists
our book Poor Artists is out now in hardback, audiobook and ebook. It is a fictional quest through the real art world. Using dialogue from anonymous interviews we did with people across the industry, we ridicule a contemporary art world that has turned art into artworks, art schools into art universities, and creative expression into cut-throat competition 👹 get it from an indie bookshop! or a big bookshop! or a library!
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE BOOK:
“An incredible achievement. It was a book that we found endlessly important, surprising, playful and unflinching. A book that is both a brilliant rebuke to snobbery and an absolute riot to read. It is one of those books that you read and think oh, they’ve caught a little bit of magic in here somehow.” Jury of the Gordon Burn Prize
“A sharp and original take on the privilege and passion of the modern creative economy.” Publishers Weekly
“Unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Irreverent, provocative and funny.” Dazed
“Reads like a page-turning novel. A full-throated defence of the inherent value of making, experiencing and talking about art.” Frieze
“A landmark for art writing.” Natalie Olah
“Poor Artists is very funny; it’s also charged with a surreal sense of invention.” The Times
“It could very well be the best way to get a sense of what it’s like to be an artist today.” ELLE Canada
“If Poor Artists is poison for institutions, it is a tonic for the people.” The Skinny
“Refreshing, lucid, and plainly radical.” South Asian Avant-Garde Anthology
“Striking bathos and playful prose… like a Tim Burton fantasy.” AnOther
“Poor Artists is a triumph. A book with a unique form that plays off the tension between romanticism and indignation, combining fiction and journalism in a fresh and provocative manner.” Amar Patel
“The White Pube have shown that art criticism is at its most fun when it’s as unpredictable and leftfield as the art it critiques.” Prospect
“Thoroughly recommend you pick up a copy and comb through it cover to cover.” Polyester
“Poor Artists interweaves impassioned real-world critique with an exuberant narrative that’s by turns satirical and surreal.” The Telegraph
EVENTS 2024/25:
- Oct 3 — London Review of Books ✅
- Oct 15 — Crafts Council Book Club ✅
- Oct 24 — The Margate Bookshop ✅
- Nov 5 — Institute of Contemporary Arts, London ✅
- Nov 22 — Edinburgh’s Radical Bookfair @ Lighthouse ✅
- Nov 23 — Generator Projects, Dundee ✅
- Nov 25 – Central Saint Martins, London ✅
- Jan 8 – Academy of Fine Art, Munich ✅
- Jan 24 – London Art Fair ✅
- Feb 1 – Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Ireland ✅
- Feb 20 – Phoenix, Leicester ✅
- Feb 24 – Toppings, Bath ✅
- Feb 27 – Bluecoat, Liverpool ✅
- Mar 4 – Nicer Tuesdays, London ✅
- Mar 20 – Uni of Sussex
- Apr 17 – Jwllrs, Morecambe
- May 8 – Newcastle Centre for Literary Arts
WHERE TO GET IT:
Still in the midst of putting this list together but besides the usual suspects, you can get the book from the following independent bookshops*
NORTH
- Dead Ink Bookshop, Liverpool
- unitom, Manchester
- Colours May Vary, Leeds
- West Kirby Bookshop, Birkenhead
- The Whitworth, Manchester
MIDLANDS
- IKON gallery, Birmingham
- Drop City Books, Stoke-on-Trent
- Lark Books, Lincoln
SOUTH
- Hastings Bookshop
- The Margate Bookshop
- Resident, Brighton
- Aspex, Portsmouth
- De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill
- The Book Hive, Norwich
LDN
- London Review Bookshop
- Brick Lane Bookshop
- Donlon Books
- Pages of Hackney
- Artwords, London Fields & Hackney Central
- Whitechapel Gallery Bookshop
- The Broadway Bookshop
- South Kensington Bookshop
- National Theatre Bookshop
- Heywood Hill
- Stoke Newington Bookshop
IRELAND
- The Library Project, Dublin
- Hodges Figgis, Dublin
WORLD
- Shakespeare and Company, Paris
- Hafi Books, Austria
- De Groene Waterman, Antwerp
- University Book Store, Seattle
- Kunstsenter, Norway
- Type Books, Toronto
- City Lit Books, Chicago
- Skunk Cabbage Books, Chicago
- Prologue Bookshop, Ohio
- Carlton Readings, Melbourne
*If you are a bookshop, a talking bookshop, and you have Poor Artists then please let us know so we can add a link on this page. But i’m not gonna lie people in Greece and Uganda have tagged us in posts and I’ve lost them and I’ve just fully lost track of where this book has made it to god it’s been a weird year
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