LONDON—The newest addition to Frieze week, the East London–based Kounter Kulture art fair seeks to offer an alternative to the upscale, mainstream fairs by providing a forum for younger, edgier artists. Organized by Newcastle gallery Opus Art to promote its roster, the inaugural edition of the fair, taking place in the Truman Brewery, kicked off with a preview on October 14 and is open to the public through October 19.

“As well as the gallery, we like to operate these pop-up exhibitions,” Opus sales director Emma Poole told ARTINFO. “This is the first Kounter Kulture, and it’s going really well.”

Rather than hosting galleries, the fair presents exhibitions by some 30 artists themselves, with sections dedicated to urban art, contemporary, and recent graduates, as well as a large section dedicated to Chinese artists sourced by Opus director Don Smith over numerous trips to the country. While only a few people were spotted wandering through the 11,500-square-foot warehouse turned creative center this morning, according to Poole, “We had over 500 people RSVP for the opening night on Tuesday.” A further 270 guests are expected at tonight's corporate sponsor party.

Dave White, an artist exhibiting large-scale paintings that take their starting point from war comics, expressed satisfaction with the fair thus far. “It’s been really successful,” he said. “I’ve sold one of the large works, Bang Bang! (2008), for £45,000 ($77,680) to an English collector, and quite a few of the £1,500 print editions have gone, too.”

White’s work is at the top end of the Kounter Kulture market in terms of price, and it seemed to be attracting the most sales.

Lower-priced works, such as Johan Andersson’s sultry oil portraits of forlorn female nudes, marked £5,000–6,000, remained unsold, despite have received much approving attention, according to Poole. “He has, however, received a commission off the back of these works for something on a smaller scale,” she said.

Meanwhile, over in the West End, the sophomore Red Dot fair offered a slightly less alternative alternative to Frieze. Occupying the first floor of the Radisson Edwardian Grafton Hotel through Sunday, the fair presents some two dozen galleries, most from England and the U.S.

Tamar Zenith, co-director of Calgary’s Newzones Gallery, admitted “the wallpaper has proved a little difficult,” referring to the wide-striped brown wall covering on which she had hung a variety of paintings and photographic works. Zenith had utilized the odd setting to good effect, however, using the en-suite bathroom for Cathy Daley’s installation Little Black Dress (2008). Consisting of a long black dress hanging on a metal wire, with the fabric cascading into the bath below, the work was priced at £9,200, but remained unsold. As did the accompanying works on paper. “It’s not been too busy at all,” Zenith admitted.

Debra Marcoux, director of New York’s Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, agreed. “It’s been pretty slow,” she said. “Lots of inquiries, but no sales.”

Some dealers were faring better, however. Down the hall in room 142, Susan Johnson Mumford of London gallery Mumford Fine Art said that there had been a lot of visitor traffic, Americans in particular.

“I’ve sold quite a few works — a bronze by Elisabeth Frink, and Kitty Blandy’s Public Life (Nodding Dog) editions are going well for £650 — though mainly to collectors I have an existing relationship with — the fair encourages them to visit and buy. I’m feeling much more optimistic about the market in general than I was.”

Still, Mumford believes the fair would see the bulk of its buyers over the weekend. “Everyone would have gone to Frieze first and will get round to coming to the satellites over the next two days,” she suggested. “That’s what happened when I was at Red Dot New York. They went to the Armory first, came to us after.”