Censored Arts – Gallery for Censored Culture
Freedom above Repression.
The Concept of Censored Arts
‘Censored Arts’ deals with art & media which were censored, confiscated, destroyed or suppressed in any other way.
We show, publish & trade with cultural expressions in the broadest sense, from visual arts to music to written publications and everything in between.
Many galleries have a certain focus point or specialization. Some deal with paintings only, others with digital Art, others maybe African or Asian art only.
We deal with Censored Arts.
We are Artists who make Censored Arts.
There are many more organizations who publish about censorship, though that’s where usually the work stops. After the story is published, the concerned artists are most often on their own again. Speaking out of experience, when an artist is being censored or suppressed, it usually has very negative financial consequences for the artist as well. Think of loss of work, or the disability to work if the artist is arrested, negative media campaigns to destroy the reputation of an artist, or artists might even have to flee the country and leave all possessions behind.
We don’t want to see artists who speak out as beggars in the street. Censored Arts intends to help the artists who make those works. If possible, to save as well the art as the artist(s) out of the hands of the oppressors and show the art to the world.
The Business Model of Censored Arts
As an organization, we don’t want to beg or make ourselves dependent from grants. Those handouts might help, but can never be a foundation to run anything sustainable on. Therefore is our concept to run as a commercial gallery, though a gallery based on freedom and non-conformism. Censored Arts is not just another commercial art gallery, but also an art project on it’s own. An art project about censorship, with participation of as many artists as possible.
To stay independent from external donors and their possible influence, we finance the project entirely out of the sales of the works on this platform and by organizing related offline events. These events are in example exhibitions, presentations or concerts by the artists.
From all sales, we take 30% commission, while 70% will go to the artists. We deal only with non-exclusive artists’ contracts, meaning that each artist maintains it’s freedom to publish their work also in other places.
The History & The Future of Censored Arts
The Censored Arts project was started by the artist RxAxLxF after his work was the target of several censorship cases within a short time span.
Read more about RxAxLxF & his censorship cases here.
RxAxLxF is also the first featured artist of Censored Arts. To kick start the Censored Arts platform, he decided to sell his censored artworks only through Censored Arts, to fund the platform by the shares of his own work. At this stage, Censored Arts is fully owned by RxAxLxF and part of his Art practice. Legally, the business is registered in The Netherlands, though operates from different locations in the world.
Currently there is also a expanding network of advisors & specialists in technical, legal and financial matters attached to Censored Arts. Also scouts in different regions of the world are analyzing the censorship situation & making connections with local artists. We hope to expand our network more & more.
If you are interested to join us, contact us here!