When is it a good or bad business opportunity?

Let me paint a picture for you. I have been approached by a few art businesses and market vendors encouraging me take on their services in Sydney, London, New York etc. Some places, (which I won’t name) ask for a commission structure of 50/50. Others ask for thousands of dollars upfront with a year’s worth of representation plus a 20% commission, others have a basic rental fee with flaky promotion, and vague contracts. I’ve experienced all of these and some. Artists spend a heck of a lot of money on things such as hire costs, promotional materials, open night catering, editorial, shipping etc... Some days I wish I could save my money and go to Hawaii.

How do you know what to go by then? These days we are still physically linked to art galleries and venues to exhibit art, primarily to increase our professional portfolios. Sad but true, yet you will never get as much exposer like a simple update to your Facebook post, than feet walking through a gallery.

Most art I sell is to people that link me, (my passion that is) to my art, and want to take a piece of that home. So it’s out of touch to be in a gallery setting or online gallery when. you’re. not. there. People want to visualise art with the artist, and it makes the process harder if the environment is inadequate. Its a bit of a catch 22. So I hope this blog helps with some barriers.

Hang on, what’s that? Was I dissing the online realm just then?! Well... yes actually. That world is an even more cluttered marketplace. You don’t get a sense of the artist, and the fee structure is pretty much the same as if you had gallery representation, plus the artist is solely responsible for package and delivery of the artwork. (Never mind about copyright problems with placing your art online in the first place). On the up side, its a great fever pit to get viral in, and your can send a message to a hell of a lot more people.

So, what I’ve learnt from all this is that venues and digital spaces will charge for their traffic. They will also die out if they don’t change their tactics, so be prepared to visit and dissect all that, before committing to a place that isn’t like the pictures they had posted online. Gone are the days where an artist could just get an agent to work on their behalf, and the artist could just paint away. So finding the best place is a matter of where your target audience is.

Doesn’t bother me, I love what I do, its a shame that most customers will pay for the artwork markups, with that in mind, my site its commission-free so thats a plus.

Credits go out to Sara Pichelli for the artwork sample.