HALI Fair Online launches this month

As virtual events continue to grow in importance and stature, and with international art and antique fairs yet to reopen, HALI—the world’s leading magazine on antique rugs and textiles—is launching HALI Fair Online from June 23 to 27.

The Fair will be accompanied by virtual Exhibitions and Events including lectures, interviews and presentations that will highlight lost cultural practices and rarely seen rugs and textiles.
HALI Fair Online and the associated Exhibitions and Events are free to attend. Registration is open now via www.hali-fair.com. Follow @halimagazine on Facebook and Instagram for up-to-date information.

HALI Fair

Thirty select exhibitors – specialists in their respective fields – will showcase antique rugs, textiles and tribal art and will be available to meet virtually and chat live during the five-day HALI Fair Online.

Fair Events

A concise series of lectures, conversations, interviews and exclusive presentations of rugs and textiles in private collections, broadcast daily.

Exhibitions

Online thematic exhibitions of costume and carpets from eminent collections, open to HALI Fair Online registrants.

Rugs and textiles have historically been produced by most cultures worldwide and traded across continents for centuries. Encoded within their techniques, materials and motifs are stories of identity, markers of the users’ place in society, references to changing political and societal conditions, global trade, foreign influence and personal taste. From the breadth of international markets to the precision of a single stitch, rugs and textiles are worthy of attention on many levels from the macro to the micro and are key to unravelling complex cultural narratives.

HALI magazine has reported on this rich area of artistic expression since 1978. Appealing to academics, interior designers, artists and collectors, it has a loyal subscriber following and, via social media, has recently introduced a new generation to the magic of antique rugs and textiles. A broad spectrum of styles and techniques are covered catering to many individual tastes, from floral suzani embroideries and graphic ikat velvets of Uzbekistan; Indian decorative chintz and figurative chamba rumals; camel trappings used at the wedding celebrations of nomads; storage bags and door surrounds for temporary desert dwellings; magnificent palace carpets for regal floors from China to Persia; and cushions, bedspreads and samplers embroidered, woven and treasured from Sweden to Morocco.

About the Fair

Connect with thirty of the world’s most prestigious specialist dealers to discover and acquire a wide range of rugs and textiles from around the world dating from antiquity to the 20th century. Exhibitors will be available online during the five-day event, to discuss the works on show with visitors to their virtual stands via a live-chat messaging feed or visitors’ preferred channels.

HALI operated HALI Fair annually at Olympia from 1998 to 2006. The tenth edition took place at the Mall Galleries in 2019, as part of HALI London, which marked 40 years and 200 editions of HALI magazine. HALI Fair Online will not only serve antique rug and textile devotees, bringing our community together remotely, but will also cater for a global audience with an appreciation of unusual antiques, exquisite decorative art and important handcrafted objects. Collectors, aficionados and those with a burgeoning interest in the world of antique rugs and textiles will be able to connect with reputable international dealers from afar, to view some of the best pieces available on the market today, as well as charming more affordable decorative items.

Costume and textiles from Africa, South America, Indonesia, Europe and Asia will be offered by Francesca Galloway, Cora Ginsburg, Andres Moraga, Joss Graham, Sarajo, Thomas Murray, Marilyn Garrow, Donald Harper, Rudolf Smend, Markus Voigt, Seref Ozen, Menzel Galerie Nordafrika and Michael Woerner Oriental Art; Moroccan rugs will be available from Gebhart Blazek and Nomadno; knotted carpets, kilims and other related artifacts from Persia, Anatolia, the Caucasus and beyond come courtesy of Alberto Levi, Alberto Boralevi, Andy Lloyd, Brian MacDonald, David Sorgato, Gallery Aydin, Hadi Maktabi, James Cohen, John Ruddy, Lombardo & Partners, Mark Berkovich, Max Lerch, Mirco Cattai, Mohammad Tehrani, Farzin Mollaian, Nomadenschätze, Sadegh Memarian and Serkan Sari.

Fair Events

Lectures, conversations and exclusive presentations of rugs and textiles will be broadcast daily and available on-demand for the duration of HALI Fair Online 2021.

• Tim Stanley, senior curator for the Middle Eastern collections at London’s V&A, presents a lecture on the royal custom of awarding robes of honour (khel‘at) to members of the court or to distinguished visitors—an ancient tradition in Iran recorded at least as far back as the Sasanian period (224–651 CE)— and shows two robes from the museum’s current exhibition, ‘Epic Iran’.
• Discover rare and strikingly graphic flatweave rugs woven in the mountainous Georgian region of Tusheti from the archives of the Ethnographic Museum in Tblisi, displayed alongside examples from three private collections in an exclusive gallery exhibition with commentary from Dr Irina Koshridze, Chief Curator of the Oriental Collections at the Georgian National Museum.
• The act of acquiring a traditional curtain to furnish his family home marked the start of an obsession for Rabat-based Khalid El Kholti, whose collection of Moroccan embroideries has grown to include examples from urban centres across the country. He shares his enthusiasm and explains the ways in which these exquisite domestic furnishing fabrics were originally used in urban Moroccan homes.

Fair Exhibitions

Virtual Exhibitions will present rarely seen textiles from three private collections: Indian phulkari embroideries from the Karun Collection; Turkman weavings from the Neville Kingston Collection; and nomadic bags and trappings from the Michael and Amy Rothberg Collection.

HALI Subscriber Benefits

The HALI Fair Online preview on 23 June 2021 is open exclusively to HALI magazine subscribers. HALI subscribers registered to visit HALI Fair Online will also receive a discount voucher to use in the HALI Bookshop for the duration of HALI Fair Online.
At HALI Fair Online, all registrants can access:

• The virtual stands of thirty international specialist exhibitors
• High quality images representing 1,200 vetted objects accompanied by reliable and informative descriptions including Berber rugs from Morocco, West African prestige cloths and Tunisian indigo shawls, alongside fine Persian and other carpets, tribal rugs, kilims and unique handmade artefacts from all corners of the globe
• Private live chat channels to leave messages and communicate directly with exhibitors in real time
• A filter and keyword search function to find pieces at the Fair by type
• On-demand Events including interviews and presentations by curators
• Daily Event broadcasts including lectures, discussions and private collection showcases
• A virtual exhibition in the new HALI Gallery
• The HALI Bookshop
• Thirty articles related to rugs and textiles available at HALI Fair Online from the HALI Archive
• The latest digital edition of HALI magazine
• Early Registration Prize Draws
• Those who register to attend HALI Fair Online before the end of May 2021 will be automatically entered into one of two prize draws to win three recent books published by Hali Publications Ltd.

HALI Magazine

An international quarterly publication focused on collectable rugs, carpets and textiles. HALI magazine is recognised as a unique and authoritative reference guide and quality art publication, while its younger sister COVER magazine explores the growing world of contemporary rugs and textile art for luxury interiors. Both magazines are produced by London-based Hali Publications Ltd., which also prints books and operates cultural tours that provide exclusive access to the best carpet and textile treasures in museums and private collections around the world.