Returning after the success of 2024, Bread & Roses is an affordable annual exhibition at dot-art Gallery coinciding with Liverpool Art Fair, which we also organise. Spanning across the summer, this exhibition brings together an array of new works from our Artist Members and displays a snapshot of their exciting portfolios.
Every year, we put out an open call to our Artist Members to propose new exhibition ideas. Last year our very own Dorothy Benjamin, who paints British landscapes in oils, proposed this exhibition idea, as a way of responding to the cost-of-living crisis. All the artworks in ‘Bread & Roses’ are priced under £200 to make owning original an option for many.
James Oppenheim published his poem ‘Bread and Roses’ in the 1915 book ‘The Cry For Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest’. The poem is associated with the textile strike in Massachusetts during early 1912, now often known as the “Bread and Roses strike.” The strike, which united dozens of immigrant communities under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World, was led to a large extent by women.
Running in parallel to Liverpool Art Fair, the principles are the same; art is for everyone, for us all to enjoy and have access to. One of the ways we at dot-art fulfil our mission is by connecting art lovers with affordable, original works while providing vital support to the artists who create them.
Some highlights of this year’s selected artworks include our poster image artist Alex Russell who creates libraries of images with traditional media such as print, collage and mark making and then writes generative code to arrange them into artworks. Anthony Gribbin has developed a new approach to his line arrangements and geometric pop patterns, playing with tension between hard lines and organic drips. Madeleine Pires exhibits impressionistic style portraits of famous writers, expressing their personalities, characteristics and mood.
“Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew–Yes, bread we fight for–but we fight for Roses, too.” – James Oppenheim
All artworks are for sale.