Art, Affordability, Access

Just as I was resigning myself to the idea that the dog days of Summer have arrived early in blogland, some interesting conversation about affordable art and commercial gallery alternatives started percolating. Obviously it's a keen interest of mine, and since Todd mentions 20x200 in his post, I thought it was a good opportunity for me to talk about the project a bit more and make some clarifications.

- First and foremost, 20x200 isn't instead of, but rather in addition to my gallery's regular program. I'm not trying to foster a stable of artists who sell work for cheap - I'm interested in created singular opportunities to get work from artists whose work is usually much more expensive at a very affordable price. Going into it, I don't plan on having artists do 20x200 editions more than once. I might have artists repeat over time, but I'd prefer not to. I'm also going to have some big names in the mix.

- The upside for the artist, especially with photography isn't limited to the edition of 200. The photos will be editioned in 3 sizes. Small ones, editions of 200 for $20, medium sized (say 16x20ish or so) editions of 20 for $200, large (say 24x30ish) editions of 2 for $2000. I am trying to sort out how this model might work for the fine art reproductions, still noodling on that one.

- Participating in 20x200 is not about desperation to sell work. It's an opportunity that will raise the artists profile considerably and also have a modest revenue generating component to it. It's also an opportunity to get more people in the habit of collecting. In my article about affordable art in Good, I talk about $20 prints as the gateway drug of the art world - give someone a taste for cheap and they'll come back for more.

Could I make more money by focusing my efforts on selling bigger more expensive pieces? Sure, I imagine that I could. But I'm not doing this for purely financial reasons. (I probably would've switched to real estate or hedge funds a long time ago if I was.) I created 20x200 because I'm really driven by a passion for supporting emerging artists and collectors.

There are a lot of people who want to buy art who are excluded from the traditional gallery system, and yet have more sophisticated tastes that aren't satisfied by mass market options. There are so many artists who want to have their work seen and collected. Why are these people not connected to each other? I see 20x200 as a bridge between them.

Comments

[Laia]

I see it as the best option for young people like me to be able to have and enjoy awesome art.
Otherwise I'd probably have to wait until my late 40's!

[tim atherton]

Ha - it hurts me to say this... but I have to admit I've just reached my late forties... and I can still only afford the $20.00 ones...

maybe because I'm an artist (or so my significant other says) :-)

[alfr3do]

I can't afford art. All the art that hangs on my walls is either a gift or something I made. I haven't been to Jen Bekman's gallery yet, but from what I see online, I'd love to own (maybe even collect) a lot of what I see from the Hot Shots. As a photographer, I'd definately love to know my work (be it 20x200, 200x20 or 2000x2) hangs on people's walls.

I took on photography a while ago, but most my photos were stuck in a box. I only began to consider myself a photographer when once started seeing my work online. Thanks to the photoblog I got a little book published and a solo show in Caracas, my home town. Now at least a few of my photos hang on people's walls. For me, art and photography are far from profitable yet. Nevertheless, it is very gratifying to move from a box to the screen, then from pixel to paper, and finally a place in front of somebody's view.

Thank you for 20x200.

[Rachel]

I think the 20x200 model is brilliant. Because it is associated with your gallery, rather than just a site like flickr, the opportunity for art purchases includes a measure of credibility - which isn't to say that art purchased off Flickr or Etsy is bad (it's not, I own many pieces!) it is just different.

I can't wait for the site to go live, I'm looking forward the chance to buy some work!

[Randel]

many artist can sell for less because of the internet.it takes away the gallerys