Large wall art succeeds when it feels connected to the room rather than added after the fact. Before considering color, subject matter, or artistic style, study the architecture that will surround the piece. Ceiling height, wall width, window placement, built-in cabinetry, fireplaces, and doorways all influence how large an artwork can comfortably become. A broad uninterrupted wall can support a commanding horizontal canvas, while a narrow wall between windows may call for a tall vertical work. Rooms with vaulted ceilings can absorb more visual scale than compact spaces with low ceilings and dense furniture arrangements. Treating the architecture as the first design constraint helps prevent a piece from appearing either insignificant or overpowering.
The shape of the wall is often as important as its square footage. A long wall above a sectional sofa usually benefits from artwork that emphasizes width, because the horizontal line reinforces the furniture below it. A tall wall beside a fireplace may look more balanced with an elongated vertical composition that draws the eye upward. Square artwork can be effective on contained walls where symmetry already plays a strong role, particularly between matching lamps, windows, or architectural details. In open-plan homes, a large artwork can also serve as a visual boundary that defines the living area without requiring a physical divider. That function makes wall art part of the room's architecture, even though it is technically decoration.
Negative space deserves equal attention because large artwork needs room around it to register clearly. Filling every available inch of a wall can make even an expensive piece feel crowded and visually restless. Leaving intentional space around the artwork creates separation from moldings, furniture, sconces, and nearby decorative objects. This breathing room becomes especially important in minimalist, contemporary, and formal interiors, where each element is expected to carry more visual responsibility. Traditional and eclectic rooms may tolerate closer layering, but the artwork should still have a recognizable boundary around it. The best starting point is therefore not asking how much wall can be covered, but how much art the room can support while retaining visual balance.
Scale is one of the most consequential decisions in choosing large living room art because furniture establishes the visual weight that artwork must answer. A substantial sofa placed beneath a small picture often makes the art seem accidental, regardless of its quality. As a practical guideline, artwork positioned above a sofa often looks most convincing when its width occupies roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the furniture below it. That proportion is not an inflexible rule, but it provides a reliable reference when evaluating larger pieces. Oversized art can exceed that range when the design is deliberately dramatic, particularly in contemporary rooms with restrained furnishings. What matters most is that the artwork and furniture appear to belong to the same visual composition.
Once homeowners have a rough size and orientation in mind, the search becomes less about finding attractive art and more about identifying pieces that work at living-room scale. Browsing by dimensions, format, and placement can be more useful than starting with subject matter. Broad marketplaces can also make it easier to compare how materials and proportions affect a piece’s presence on a large wall. iCanvas, an online marketplace, offers ready-to-hang works from independent artists, licensed estates, and cultural institutions across canvas, fine art paper, acrylic glass, wood, and metal. When the main challenge is filling a generous stretch of wall without overwhelming the room, browsing its range of art in larger proportions can help clarify the options, while those furnishing a seating area can narrow the search to art suited to larger living-room walls. This approach keeps proportion and placement central while allowing style and imagery to guide the final selection naturally.
Measurements, however, are only part of the equation. The visual density of the furniture should also influence how substantial the artwork needs to feel. A low-profile cream sofa with slender legs presents less visual weight than a deep leather Chesterfield of identical width. The lighter sofa may pair comfortably with an airy abstract painting, while the heavier sofa may require stronger contrast or a more substantial composition to keep the wall from feeling weak. The same principle applies to coffee tables, bookcases, floor lamps, and side chairs that enter the field of view. When several heavy pieces occupy the lower half of the room, larger artwork can help distribute attention vertically and restore equilibrium. Successful scale is therefore both mathematical and perceptual, combining physical dimensions with the apparent weight of everything nearby.
Let the Room's Design Language Guide the SubjectSubject matter has a powerful effect on whether large wall art looks integrated with a living room. A modern interior with clean lines and limited ornament often benefits from abstract work, architectural photography, geometric compositions, or restrained landscapes. Traditional rooms may respond well to botanical studies, portraiture, classical landscapes, or works that carry a sense of history and craftsmanship. Eclectic interiors have more freedom because contrast is often part of the intended character, although seemingly unrelated objects still need common threads. Coastal rooms, for example, do not require literal pictures of beaches, but they may benefit from atmospheric landscapes, soft photography, or abstract work inspired by water and sky. The objective is to support the room's design vocabulary without turning the artwork into a predictable illustration of the decorating theme.
Literal coordination can become a weakness when every decorative element repeats the same idea. A rustic living room filled with timber, woven materials, and natural colors does not necessarily need a painting of a barn or forest. A contemporary room does not automatically require black-and-white geometric abstraction simply because the furniture has sharp edges. More sophisticated interiors often use art to extend the room's emotional character rather than duplicate its objects. A warm minimalist room might gain depth from a muted figurative painting, while an industrial loft could benefit from a soft atmospheric piece that offsets concrete and steel. Thinking in terms of mood, rhythm, texture, and visual tension usually produces a more layered result than choosing art by theme alone.
The emotional tone of a large artwork deserves particular attention because scale magnifies its effect. A small unsettling image can be an intriguing accent, while the same imagery at six feet wide may dominate the emotional atmosphere of the entire room. Conversely, expansive landscapes, expressive abstracts, and quiet monochromatic works can give a living area a powerful sense of calm when reproduced at substantial scale. Consider how often the room is used, who uses it, and what the space is meant to encourage. A formal sitting room can accommodate a more intellectually challenging work than a family room designed primarily for everyday relaxation and conversation. Large art operates almost like background music for the eye, so its emotional register should be chosen with the same care as its dimensions.
Color matching does not mean finding artwork that reproduces the exact colors of the sofa, rug, and curtains. That approach often creates interiors that feel overly coordinated and visually flat. Instead, large wall art can draw from one or two existing colors while introducing additional tones that make the palette more complex. A neutral living room might benefit from artwork containing warm rust, deep green, or muted blue, provided one of those shades connects naturally with an existing object in the space. Conversely, a colorful room may benefit from quieter artwork that gives the eye a place to rest. The strongest color relationships usually involve repetition, variation, and contrast rather than exact duplication.
Undertones become particularly important when the artwork occupies a large percentage of the visual field. Whites can lean warm, cool, gray, cream, or even slightly green, while ostensibly neutral browns and beiges can carry red, yellow, or gray undertones. A large print with icy blues may feel unexpectedly harsh beside warm ivory upholstery, even if both appear subdued when viewed separately. Similarly, an artwork dominated by warm ochre can make a cool gray wall look bluer than expected. Viewing samples or product images near the furniture and wall color can reveal these interactions before installation. Large art changes how adjacent colors are perceived, which makes undertone compatibility a practical design issue rather than a minor aesthetic detail.
Contrast can be used strategically when a room needs more definition. Light walls can provide an effective background for richly saturated artwork, while darker rooms may gain dimension from pieces with pale areas, reflective surfaces, or high tonal variation. In monochromatic spaces, artwork does not necessarily need to introduce a new hue because contrast can also come from value, texture, or line. A black-and-white photograph, for example, can provide strong visual structure in a beige room without disrupting its neutral palette. Colorful artwork can similarly function as the main source of energy in an otherwise restrained interior. The goal is to decide whether the art should reinforce the existing palette, expand it, or deliberately interrupt it.
The surface on which art is presented affects how the work interacts with the rest of the living room. Canvas tends to provide a softer, more tactile appearance, making it versatile across contemporary, transitional, rustic, coastal, and casual interiors. Fine art paper placed behind a frame can create a more structured presentation that works particularly well in traditional, Scandinavian, gallery-inspired, and modern spaces. Acrylic surfaces often create sharper color, greater visual depth, and a polished finish that can suit sleek contemporary rooms. Metal can reinforce industrial or modern interiors, especially when photographic or graphic imagery is involved. Wood-based art introduces texture and warmth, qualities that may complement organic modern, farmhouse, lodge, or nature-focused spaces.
Finish should also be considered in relation to the room's existing materials. A living room already filled with polished stone, glass tables, and metallic fixtures may not need another highly reflective surface. A textured canvas could provide useful softness and prevent the space from appearing too slick. In contrast, a room dominated by linen, unfinished timber, boucle, and other matte materials might benefit from an acrylic or metal piece that introduces subtle visual precision. Repetition can create cohesion, but variation is what keeps a sophisticated room from becoming monotonous. Good material selection therefore balances compatibility with enough contrast to give the artwork a distinct presence.
Frames can significantly alter the character of large art, particularly because their thickness becomes more noticeable as dimensions increase. Thin black frames can lend structure to contemporary photography, posters, and abstract prints without demanding excessive attention. Natural wood frames can soften modern artwork and establish connections with flooring, cabinetry, or furniture. Ornate frames may strengthen the historical or formal character of traditional interiors, but they should be proportional to both the artwork and surrounding furnishings. Frameless canvas presentations often create a cleaner, less architectural appearance, allowing the image itself to dominate. The frame is not merely an accessory around the art; it is part of the transition between the artwork and the room.
Placement is often discussed as a question of hanging height, but successful positioning requires looking at the complete seating arrangement. Artwork above a sofa should typically appear visually connected to the furniture rather than floating near the ceiling. A common mistake is leaving so much space between the sofa and artwork that they read as unrelated elements. In many rooms, placing the lower edge of the artwork roughly six to twelve inches above the sofa provides a useful starting range, although furniture height and artwork dimensions can justify adjustments. The center of the art does not always need to correspond with generic gallery-height recommendations if the piece is anchored to furniture. Residential placement works best when relationships between objects take priority over universal numbers.
Centering also requires judgment because the architectural center of a wall may differ from the visual center of a furniture grouping. If a sectional extends farther on one side, artwork centered on the wall can appear misaligned with the seating area. Likewise, a sofa positioned off-center because of a doorway or fireplace may require the art to follow the furniture rather than the room itself. Floor lamps, side tables, consoles, and adjacent chairs can shift the perceived center of the composition. Photographing the wall straight on can make these imbalances easier to identify than viewing the space while standing inside it. The correct position is the one that makes the group feel balanced as a whole.
Large art can also be positioned away from the sofa entirely, especially in living rooms with multiple focal points. An oversized piece on the wall opposite the seating area can create a destination for the eye and prevent the television from becoming the room's only dominant feature. Artwork beside a fireplace can help balance a chimney breast when there is enough uninterrupted wall space. In open-concept homes, a commanding artwork on a dining-adjacent or entry-facing wall may visually announce where the living room begins. These placements are particularly effective when the art can be seen from several parts of the home. Thinking about sightlines expands the role of large artwork from wall decoration to a tool for directing movement and attention.
Adapt the Choice to Specific Interior StylesModern and contemporary living rooms generally reward clarity, scale, and restraint. Large abstract works, architectural photography, minimalist landscapes, and graphic compositions can reinforce the clean geometry commonly found in these spaces. A single substantial piece often works better than a crowded arrangement because it preserves the visual simplicity of the room. Yet contemporary does not have to mean cold, and textured paintings or organic forms can soften sharp furniture and hard architectural surfaces. Warm contemporary rooms increasingly mix simple silhouettes with natural materials, making atmospheric art and earthy palettes particularly effective. The common principle is confidence, with fewer pieces allowed to make stronger statements.
Traditional and transitional living rooms usually benefit from artwork that feels established without becoming overly formal. Landscapes, botanicals, portraiture, still lifes, maps, and historically influenced imagery can work well, especially when paired with appropriate frames. Transitional interiors can support more contemporary subjects because they already mix classic furniture proportions with cleaner modern details. The key is finding an artwork whose level of formality corresponds with the furnishings. A highly ornate gilt frame may look disconnected from a streamlined transitional sofa, while a simple dark frame can make traditional subject matter feel current. Large art is particularly useful in these rooms because it can bridge older and newer design elements through color, composition, and presentation.
Bohemian, eclectic, industrial, and organic interiors allow greater freedom, but they still benefit from deliberate editing. Bohemian rooms can support expressive color, figurative work, cultural motifs, and richly textured compositions, provided the artwork does not become lost among textiles and collected objects. Industrial spaces often provide ideal settings for very large photography, graphic prints, street-inspired work, or bold abstract pieces because brick and concrete can absorb significant visual weight. Organic modern rooms tend to favor natural forms, landscape imagery, muted abstraction, and earthy palettes that complement wood, stone, linen, and sculptural furniture. Eclectic interiors can combine almost any genre when there is a meaningful connection through color, scale, history, or personal significance. Freedom works best when the artwork looks consciously chosen rather than simply accumulated.
One of the most practical uses of large wall art is correcting a room that feels visually incomplete. Living rooms frequently carry most of their furniture weight in the lower half of the space, leaving a broad area of empty wall above sofas, consoles, and chairs. A sufficiently large artwork raises the visual center of gravity and makes the architecture feel more fully occupied. This is especially important in rooms with ceilings above the standard height, where conventional artwork can appear disproportionately small. Vertical compositions can emphasize height, while wide works can make narrow rooms feel more expansive. Art becomes a tool for adjusting perceived proportions without structural renovation.
Large artwork can also compete with architectural features that would otherwise dominate the room. A fireplace, television, broad window, or built-in shelving unit often attracts immediate attention because of its size. Placing substantial artwork elsewhere gives the eye a second major focal point, creating a more balanced visual hierarchy. This can be especially useful in rooms where the television occupies a prominent black rectangle when switched off. A large, expressive work on an adjacent or opposite wall gives the room an identity that is not centered exclusively on electronics. The result can feel more residential, intentional, and complete.
Asymmetrical rooms often benefit from this corrective effect as well. A living area may have a window on one side, an opening on another, and furniture arranged according to circulation rather than architectural symmetry. Trying to force perfect symmetry into such a room usually exposes the irregularities instead of solving them. Large art can establish a new visual anchor around which the rest of the furnishings appear organized. An intentionally off-center composition may even look more sophisticated when balanced by a tall floor lamp, plant, or sculptural chair. The aim is not to disguise the room's architecture, but to give uneven elements a convincing visual counterweight.
Buy for Longevity Rather Than a Temporary TrendBecause large wall art commands attention and usually represents a more significant purchase than small decorative pieces, it should ideally survive more than one decorating cycle. Trend-driven imagery can look fresh when it appears repeatedly on social media, but ubiquity can quickly reduce its sense of individuality. Personal connection is a more durable criterion than popularity. An image associated with travel, nature, architecture, cultural interests, or a particular artistic movement is more likely to remain meaningful as furniture and accessories change. Strong artwork does not need to match every future sofa, but it should have enough visual complexity to coexist with more than one palette. Buying with a five-year perspective often leads to better decisions than decorating for the current season.
Versatility also matters when choosing dimensions and orientation. Extremely specialized shapes can be impressive in a particular location but difficult to relocate if the room is redesigned. A moderately wide landscape format may work above a sofa today and above a console or dining cabinet later. Large square pieces can be surprisingly flexible because they are not tied strongly to either vertical or horizontal architecture. Neutral frames and adaptable materials can further extend an artwork's usefulness through future changes in paint colors and furniture. Considering possible second locations before buying can help distinguish a lasting investment from a piece that solves only one temporary design problem.
The final decision should still make room for instinct because art is not merely a proportional exercise. Measurements, palettes, materials, and decorating styles help eliminate poor choices, but they cannot determine which image will continue to reward attention. Large artwork is encountered repeatedly, often every day, and that familiarity makes emotional durability important. A piece that creates curiosity, calm, pleasure, recognition, or even productive tension can become part of how a room is experienced over time. The strongest choice will satisfy both the practical demands of the living room and the personal standards of the people who occupy it. When those two considerations align, large wall art stops functioning as filler and becomes one of the defining elements of the home.
If you are an emerging artist, you should think of creating a personal website along with profiles on social media platforms. This is very important as online presence is highly recommended if not obligatory for business, art, and sports. To present your art website to the masses, you have to promote and optimize it for search engines. This article explains how you can boost your website ranking and provides more details on backlinks as the most powerful method to achieve that.
Art website: first steps
Before bringing the website to the top of searches, you should create a stable base for it. It is necessary to select a reliable site builder and assign a suitable domain name to your art online platform. This sets up a decent base for future optimization of the website.
Select website builder
While there are many website builders these days, you should rely on the most convenient and credible ones. It is not enough to proceed with the one that appears high on the search results. You should take into consideration the pieces of advice of those people who have also used website builders for creating their art websites. The website building platform should guarantee that your website loads fast, you can select the preferred domain name, and apply search optimization activities without any constraints.
As a rule, most website-building platforms offer a set of predefined templates for art websites. You could select the preferred one and adjust it to your needs at any time.
Select domain name
To reinforce the optimization efforts for your website, set a clear and recognizable domain name. There are lots of services like GoDaddy and Namecheap where you can verify whether the preferred domain name is available. Also, you can buy the domain you like and reserve a place for it on the hosting platform.
The introduction of the .ART domains in 2016 was an ingenious way for artists to differentiate their websites, from the average website domain, and to emphasize their artistry. To search .ART domains, click HERE.
Art website advancement
As your art website is designed, created, and tuned up, it is the right time to apply SEO techniques to it. In particular, you should consider investing much time and enough resources in link building.
Gain backlinks
The fastest way to make your website highly visible on the web is to gain backlinks from other online resources. Various techniques allow you to do that in different modes, though the objective remains always the same.
One of the primary methods for link building is outreach to other websites via email or other communication tools. That might not always be easy, though you establish cooperation with different instances that way.
Another popular backlink-gaining procedure is by using an automated link building service on the web. Find a credible provider that has a large database of various online platforms and websites that would gladly link back to your website.
If you are keen on writing an article, you can also gain links via guest posting. This is a reliable approach to gain traffic to your art website as well as to increase awareness of your art brand.
Control on-page SEO
Besides link-building practices, it is also crucial to guarantee that your website functions properly. Use dedicated tools for controlling the page load speed on your website, cleaning up your website code, and checking other technical characteristics. This will help to make sure that users stay on the website for long after they find it on search results and follow it.
Analyze website performance
Your website ranking progress can’t be properly estimated in case you do not use proper analytic tools. One of the most popular and effective ones is Google Analytics, which is free to use. There you will be able to see all the characteristics and user behavior statistics on your website, Based on that data, you would be able to derive what could be done better on your website to boost its ranking further.
Create e-shop
Even though the art website optimization is crucially important, you should also consider creating your small representation instance on world-known platforms for selling art objects. These could be Etsy and Artspan - the art marketplaces offering creative people the possibility to set up their online storefronts.
Art platforms for creators have embedded optimization mechanisms that allow your art products to be visible on the web by embedding certain keywords. Also, you can insert backlinks to your website from there, thus linking back from credible resources and improving your website ranking.
Mary Hunter is a successful American freelance lifestyle blogger with advanced writing skills. She is currently working for linksmanagement.com. Mary has experience in editing, marketing, and her works appear in different publications and website articles.
Read more helpful art career and marketing articles in our archives HERE.
As an artist, you want people to see your work. After all, the more people get to appreciate your art, the more you can advance your career as an artist and ideally sell more art. One way to do this is by marketing yourself online, either on your own or with someone’s help. Read on to find out the top 10 marketing tips and trends you can use to increase your art website traffic.
#1 Master SEO Basics
Start by learning all the SEO basics. You need to know how to perform keyword research and how to use these keywords in your content. Learn about on-site optimization to further improve your website (e.g. proper navigation, creating a sitemap, etc.)
#2 Optimize Visual Content
Pay special attention to all the visual content you publish because it is crucial for you as an artist. Your images and videos need to be of high quality, but you should also add all the right details to them for SEO (e.g. alt tags for images, descriptions and keywords for videos). Don’t forget to add social sharing buttons to let your audience share your artwork elsewhere.
#3 Start Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is one of the best ways to get more backlinks to your website. If you don’t have time to do it yourself, there are professional writing services you can reach out to for assistance. When you publish your content on someone else’s website or blog, you can include a link to your own site which will guide their audience to you.
#4 Develop Your Link Profile
In addition to getting more backlinks, you should also develop your link profile by using both external and internal links in your website content. Internal links will help you keep users on your website longer while external links (especially to the sources of the facts or statistics you used) will help you look more reputable in the eyes of your audience.
#5 Utilize Social Media
Social media is essential for marketing you and your art. Create your profiles on different social media platforms and regularly remind your followers about your website. Don’t forget to use social media marketing techniques to successfully promote your content on those platforms (e.g. hashtags, tagging, locations, commenting, live streaming).
#6 Promote Word-of-Mouth
Word-of-mouth can easily spread the word about you, but instead of waiting for someone to start talking about you, you can promote word-of-mouth yourself. Reach out to your fans, followers and collectors of your work and ask them to provide a review or testimonial of your work. Then, you can post these on your website and share on your social platforms to get people interested in your art.
#7 Connect with Other Artists
Instead of relying solely on your own efforts and being a lone wolf, it’s a good idea to reach out to other artists like yourself and promote each other. You can partner with other artists to create unique art, host giveaways, and promote each other in different ways. Having these connections will also play a role in helping you advance your career.
#8 Engage with Your Audience
Engagement is important not just for your metrics but also for connecting with your fans. Encourage discussions in the comment section on your website and social media profiles, reply to comments, and so on. All of this shows that you are a friendly person who is happy to engage and connect with their audience.
#9 Make A Posting Schedule
To stay consistent, you will need to create a posting schedule for all the content you publish on your website or social media profiles. This way, you will always have a steady stream of content for your audience to discover and consume.
#10 Measure Performance and Improve
Last but not least, don’t forget to measure the performance of your web content and your website itself to improve your future digital marketing activities. Your updated strategy needs to have the necessary changes that will improve your metrics. Take into account everything – traffic, average session time, conversion rate, comments, social shares, and so on.
Wrapping Up
There are quite a few ways you can successfully reach a wider audience, but the most important thing is to be consistent with your marketing activities. Use the tactics in this article to help you generate more traffic on your website and find new fans and, ideally, buyers of your art.
Anna Medina is a specialist in different types of writing. She graduated from the Interpreters Department, but creative writing became her favorite type of work. Now she improves her skills while working for the writing services review websites like Best Writers Online with content of any type, but, mainly, assisting students all over the world.
Today, the most successful artists are creative, dedicated to their craft and leave nothing to chance when they present their art either in person or online.
If you study our top 10 category winning artists, you will see that they have one thing in common. All of the art they submit that places high in our art competitions have been prepared and presented flawlessly.
Every month we receive many excellent art entries but, if the artist’s overall presentation is not as good as their art, their work will then place at a much lower level in the art exhibition!
We receive images as entries that are not sharp and are of a generally poor quality. Many of them need to be color corrected or properly cropped.
What must an artist due to present their art at the highest quality possible?
Artists can de-haze their images by adjusting the contrast settings either in pre or post-processing. By de-hazing an image, an artist can easily take care of most of their image quality issues.
Artists who improve their overall presentations by making these small adjustments will find that their art will place higher in art competitions and, hopefully, achieve more art sales.
It is very difficult for most artists when entering an art competition to evaluate their entries objectively. Questions which come to mind are; will my art measure-up to everyone else’s? Is my style of art what they are looking for? Is my work good enough to be accepted? What are my reasons for entering this competition? Am I entering this art competition for validation, exposure or for the prize money? These questions can stress an artist to the point of paralysis!
In order to proceed further, the artist needs to make a determination as to their exact purpose for and their objective in entering this art competition. Does it meet the artist’s needs?
Is this a judged event or is this a juried event? Is this a local, regional or international event? Is there a theme or subject? What type of art organization is conducting this event? These questions should be answered prior to entering any art competition.
Let’s review these points in more detail in order to help the artist determine whether this is the right competition to enter or not;
Art collectors, art consultants and art buyers who are judges will usually be more conservative and “safe” in their evaluations and selections, as this is how they buy and collect art.
A judge, who is also an artist, will be more critical of any art that is within their specialty or in the media which they also employ. The rationale for this is that they will not select art in their genre/style that is not as good as their own art.
Many times we see artists who research the competition's judges in order to match their style of art with that of the judge’s. This can backfire on an artist, as that judge will be more critical and subjective about that art than another judge with a different artistic genre/style.
To me, the following are the most important determining factors for getting into an art show or art exhibition;
No matter what we like to think, the judging process will come down to a subjective decision by the judge. If your art is not selected, it really does not mean much. The next time you enter that same art into another art competition, with another judge, the results may be totally different for you.
After the selections have been made, whether your art is in or out, review the entries that were selected and objectively evaluate that art against your own. This may help you with the direction of your art for the future.
Do not ever give up entering more art competitions. Be smart about it, do some research and remember to think like a judge in order be more successful when entering future art competitions.
Sometimes a poorly presented art entry may be the cause of one’s art not getting into an art exhibition, rather than the quality of the art that was entered. How can that be, after all, isn’t this an art competition? This article will discuss how a poorly presented submission or entry and not the quality of the art may be the reason for not being accepted into an art exhibition.
Every month Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery receives wonderful art for our competitions. Some of the art that we receive may have been very good but because of the artist’s entry, we were unable to properly judge the art. This is usually caused by the overall quality of the image(s) as being too poor to be able to be placed in the art exhibition. The art that was submitted may have been excellent but because the artist did not take care, used poor equipment or their technique for recording the art was not as good as it should or could have been.
Recently, Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery began accepting 3D art and we have received some wonderful works. We have also received some work that was so poorly presented that we could not judge the art on the same level as the other entries. Because of this, we could not place this art in the exhibition too. Artists should realize that their presentation/entry is just as important as their art when it comes to entering an art competition.
If artists have not been getting into as many exhibitions as they would like, versus the number of competitions that they have been entering, those artists should take a fresh and objective look at how they are recording and submitting their art.
Our website has several articles on the proper techniques to record and present art. The internet has many other helpful articles that will help the serious artist to improve their art submissions.
Artists should look to improve their submissions by studying the basic techniques of recording their artworks and by spending more time on this process prior to submitting their art. Remember, this is a competition and besides the quality of the art received, the artist’s submission presentation can either help or hurt them.
Please read our related post titled "But I Thought That My Art Was Pretty Good....".
Contrary to what most new artists think, art galleries do want to look at new artists’ artworks. Most art galleries want to be able to do this on their terms, on their time schedule, and in their own manner. If an artist wants to successfully present their art to an art gallery, then they really should comply with the gallery’s presentation procedures.
I am often asked, “how do I get my artwork into art galleries?" I cannot say that there is a set formula in how to approach an art gallery, but I can give you some tips to guide you in this mission. The major mistake that I see artists make is that they will be so desperate to get their work shown that they waste a lot of time approaching and making contact with the wrong art galleries. By this I mean, that the artist is soliciting any and all art galleries without first determining whether their art is compatible and in keeping with that gallery’s inventory.
I believe that the artist should do a certain amount of research on the targeted gallery prior to approaching them to show/present their work. The artist should objectively evaluate the gallery whether they are a good fit for their art, style, media, pricing etc. For instance, if you are a photographer or a sculptor and the gallery you want to show your work in does not represent photographers or 3D art, why waste your time (and also the gallery’s time) trying to get an appointment? Or, if the pricing of the art that the gallery represents is in the 5 figure range and you sell your art on average for $500.00, I would not bother approaching this gallery. Your time should be valuable to you, therefore, only solicit art galleries and gallery directors/owners who represent artists whose art is similar to yours in terms of media, pricing, and style.
Today, there is enough information online (and usually at the art gallery’s website) that will allow the artist to make a reasonable judgment on whether that gallery is a good prospect for their art. The gallery website will show the represented gallery artists, samples of their art, a short bio of the artist and the prices of their art. Is your artwork comparable to the art that this gallery presently represents? If this gallery has the potential to be a good fit for you, only then, would I go into further research of this gallery?
Many times the gallery website will provide their submission policy or submission parameters and requirements. In some cases, they will say that they are not reviewing any portfolios at this time. This means that at this time, the gallery is satisfied with their current artists and that they are too busy to stop and review art portfolios. Please respect this and do not bother the gallery. However, if a gallery has not provided their submission policy publicly, then a short note or a concise email asking what their present submission policy will suffice. There is no good reason at this time to go into any further detail on your art, education, qualifications etc.
Many art galleries schedule a certain time of the year or a time of the month when they will review portfolios, as this is much easier and more efficient to review art portfolios at the same time. Again, an artist should follow their procedure and schedule exactly as it states. To do anything else, will risk the artist, for being remembered by the gallery for the wrong reasons!
You finally find a gallery that seems to be suitable to your art, you contact them or present your artwork in their prescribed manner and they would now like to see more of your artworks and discuss showing in their gallery with you! Now, what do you do? Here are some tips and ideas to help an artist to follow when they finally get an appointment with the art gallery;
1. Make sure that your biography, CV and artist statement are up to date. Have extra copies too.
2. Have all the images of your artwork prepared in several forms for the gallery to review. Make sure that you have extra copies of this work in order to be able to leave them at the gallery for further review. There is nothing worse for an artist to say to the gallery, that this is their only set and that they have to take it with them. Don’t do it.
3. Make sure that the images of your artwork are professionally presentable. This means that there are no crooked images, no frames in the image, that the images are cropped (with no backgrounds beyond the image borders), no watermarks, and no hot spots. Also, make sure that all images are color corrected and if you cannot do any of the above well, get someone to do it for you with the proper equipment, programs, and experience in duplicating art.
4. Act professionally. Think of this gallery appointment as you would if you were applying for a job and the employer was interviewing you. The gallery will have questions about your background, experience and your art. Conversely, you should be prepared to discuss how they conduct their gallery business and if you were to be selected, how could their arrangements help to sell your art?
5. Be prepared to wait, for a decision on their behalf about taking you on as a gallery artist. In many cases, art galleries are working a year or two out with the scheduling of their shows and exhibitions. So be prepared to wait and be patient.
6. Conversely, be prepared to act quickly! How can this be after what I said in #5 above? I make this statement because there are artists, even though they were accepted into a gallery who are not prepared and they will need to drop out. At that point, the gallery will need a replacement artist very quickly and you can be that replacement if you are ready! When I first started out, even though I was not the gallery’s first choice, I was asked several times to replace artists who were not prepared or were “no shows”. This will not occur all of the time, but there is always a chance...be prepared and available.
7. Whatever you do, do not keep calling the gallery to bug them about your art, your meeting, their decision about your art, etc. Art galleries are busy places and they have their own schedule to follow, not yours. Again be patient.
8. If you have the time, I suggest sending an “old fashion” handwritten thank you note to the person who you had the appointment with at the art gallery. Why is this? Because No One Else Does It! It is a nice touch, totally unexpected to the recipient and it is an incredibly good way to have them remember you in a positive way.
9. One of the best ways to meet gallery directors/owners to discuss your art is through the introduction of other artists who have shown their art at the gallery. This approach is much better than a “cold call” and it is also a form of a “third party endorsement of your work. This is another reason why it is important to network and become part of any local art organizations
10. Think locally and branch out from there. Get known locally prior to approaching art galleries in larger cities. Try to get into local galleries through art competitions and art shows, and then build upon that success into regional, state and national galleries.
11. Are you just starting out? Besides #9 above, seek to place your art in alternative venues, rather than just art galleries. What do I mean by this? Get your art into local restaurants, retail shops, community clubhouses, consignment stores and libraries. All of these alternative venues can help you to become known and established within your community. Also, who knows, you might make some sales too!
I also suggest that you try to learn how art galleries operate, as this will give you a better understanding of the business and it helps you when you do approach them to show your artwork. There is a “code of conduct” to the art business and as an artist starting out, try to learn the ins and outs of the business, as to do otherwise will eventually lessen your chances of getting your art into galleries. Good luck!
