Urban Art Association

Personally, I prefer to buy direct from the artist. For a few reasons:

a) I like to build a rapport with the artists who can answer any questions I have about the piece (direct from the horses mouth so to speak!)

b) No gallery surcharge

c) Sometimes get nice wee extra bits that I think tells a lot about the artist.

But that's just me... Go for it Marcus (if you've got the time and resources to self represent).

Yeah straight from the artist. Especially if they throw in the odd freebie.

Mike,

Don't make your decision based on our (3) comments. There are benefits being represented by a gallery too such as:

a) increased expore to a wider market and captive following (of the gallery)

b) you don't have to worry (as much) about marketing, dealing with enquires, processing payment and packaging up to send etc

c) you can claim to be 'represented by a gallery

but I still prefer buying form the artist!

well, you would be surprised how much time artists spend dealing with galleries :-(

In in ideal world I would be represented by someone like BRP, my editions would sell out on their own and I wouldn't have to give the gallery a gentle prod now and again. However, so far my ideal is far from achieved and I have to deal with galleries who's marketing efforts need to be supplemented with my own.

I spend approximately 25% of my time actually making art and the rest involved with auxiliary tasks such as marketing and networking. I'm hoping that as I establish myself in London this will change but its a long road for any artist to get to the point where they are happy with their representation.

Edit: I should add here that I am not talking about any gallery in particular.

Thankyou - You can call me Mike :-)

Sorry for being naive but I have always made releases through galleries before. How does it work? Do I just say "this is the print, here's my number, phone me if you want to buy one"?

I'm really excited about these prints, they are going to be gorgeous!

Im still working hard on them, not only on the art but trying to decide how they will be printed. I will post them here as soon as they are released.

Meanwhile if you have followed my my blog or flickr it will be fairly obvious what's coming.

You could always set up a bigcartel shop (www.bigcartel.com), any purchases are paid directly into your paypal account. Quite customisable too, more so if you get the paid account rather than the free one.

Hmm. I have always thought of bigcartel as a bit amateurish. It might just be my perception though.

Is this not how it is seen by print collectors?

as for the exposure and marketing, I think it can go either way. I absolutely agree that the right gallery is an invaluble asset for an artist but there are also many wrong galleries.

Take JR as an example. Laz sell his stuff for ridiculous prices leading to lower sales than you would expect. Meanwhile he keeps putting out editions through strange unknown publishers which harm his reputation as an artist.

Probably more so than having your own website with it's own integrated shop. But that would mean a hell of a lot more hassle and expense, even for an off the shelf job.

There are quite a few artists with a bigcartel shop, or similar. Copyright for example has a myshopify store linked from his site.

If I were publish them myself I certainly would welcome galleries to buy wholesale or sell on consignment.

In my book, having ones work sold by and having it published through a gallery are two very different things.

Snap again!!

I personally think that unless the gallery has a strong reputation and the ability to further your career that I would self-represent. IMO it is important that an artist early on in his/her career does not jump in and join an average gallery (and there's so many out there) as this will only serve to increase your prices by 30% - 50%, which is the last thing you want to do at a stage when you need to keep prices low and get your art out there (and in doing so build a fan base). Once your profile grows to the extent that your work is in demand, then maybe the time to join a gallery who's willing and able to support you.

I'd be very interested to hear the views of some of the galleries on here...

I personally think that unless the gallery has a strong reputation and the ability to further your career that I would self-represent. IMO it is important that an artist early on in his/her career does not jump in and join an average gallery (and there's so many out there) as this will only serve to increase your prices by 30% - 50%, which is the last thing you want to do at a stage when you need to keep prices low and get your art out there (and in doing so build a fan base). Once your profile grows to the extent that your work is in demand, then maybe the time to join a gallery who's willing and able to support you.

I'd be very interested to hear the views of some of the galleries on here...


I agree with the above to a certain extent on this.
It really depends on what you want to achieve as an artist. Some artists want to top up their giros/wages a little by flogging their wares on here, while others want to do proper exhibitions with press releases, open nights and hopefully get reviews etc.

All the big names are with galleries and do shows though.

You must have heard of Grafter and know that he sells through his own website AND is sold through a gallery. Why don't you send him a pm?