An Art Fair can be a great opportunity to showcase your art practice and meet potential collectors face-to-face. Art Fairs that welcome self-representing artists allow you to show your work exactly how you’d like to, and have both full control and responsibility for the presentation of your work within the confines of your stand. This Art Fair checklist will help you prepare for such an event and make the most of an exciting exhibition opportunity.
Above image: StART Art Fair 2022
Choosing Which Art Fairs to Apply to
Today, there is a huge array of art fairs that you can choose to apply to, many of which welcome self representing stands, as opposed to gallery stands. The advantage of this is that you do not need to pay commission on sales, but you will need to pay for a stand. You’ll also need to work for your sales; arranging transportation of art work, labels, pricing, promoting your stand and presence at the fair, and so on. In essence, you take care of everything, but if your efforts are successful, you stand to have the opportunity to directly communicate with your audience, meet your collectors, and take 100% of the sales.
Affordable Art Fair – Hampstead 2019
Because there are a lot of art fairs for artists that take place annually and sometimes more frequently around the world today, it’s worth doing your research. First of all check out the artwork that they have shown at their fairs in the past, and ask yourself whether the work you make is a good fit for the identity of the fair. Can you see your paintings or prints sitting well among the work they have presented on their website or Instagram?
Print Fest
Photo credit: © Kate Kirkwood
Some art fairs are more eclectic than others – you might come across fairs that deal in only one artform, e.g. original prints or drawings, while other fairs such as the Other Art Fair have an array of all kinds of visual art forms. See how long the art fair has been running for (one that has fully established itself is more likely to be better organised, while a younger fair might have more affordable stand prices). It’s also worth taking a look at the marketing for an art fair – even if your work is a good fit, you need to check if the price level fits with your pricing for your own artwork – and if not, are you prepared to adjust your prices so that you don’t appear to be underpricing or pricing yourself out of the event? If you know previous exhibitors, ask them about their experience of the event in the past.
Bath Art Fair
Photo credit: Anna Barclay
Another consideration is the logistics. Will you be able to transport yourself and your artwork to the venue? If it’s too far away to commute to and from throughout the event and you need to stay overnight, you’ll want to factor any accommodation costs into your budget to see if taking part in the fair is financially viable.
Preparing a Successful Art Fair Application
Many of the best art fairs will vet their applications in order to select a variety of artists whose work will complement one another. Make an honest application – presenting work that is a close representation of what you intend to take to the fair. If you only show work that you think fits better with the identity of the fair but doesn’t accurately represent what you make at the moment, it won’t help you and it won’t help the fair organisers. When writing an artist statement, be straightforward in describing what drives your work, and be concise. Organisers tend to favour text that is written in the third person as it makes it easy for them to cut and paste into their marketing, but be sure to read any guidelines carefully to give them what they want. Enthuse about the concepts, materials and processes that drive your practice (i.e. ‘Simmons revels in the wide array of effects achieved with acrylic mediums and uses these to describe the drama of the British coastline’) and it will help you to create a statement that is lively and engaging. Focus on what sets your artwork apart where you can, and don’t make anything up!
Bath Art Fair
Photo credit: Anna Barclay
Deciding What to Show at an Art Fair
Remember that unless you are a well-known artist, the art fair experience often presents your work to an unfamiliar audience, and many of the potential sales you make will be impulse buys. Therefore if you want to maximise the potential for sales my advice would be to take some smaller, lower priced works that are easy to take home and also easier for purchasers to decide on. However on the other hand, you may not want your audience to think that you only make small works, and if a large part of your practice is painting huge canvases, then be sure to take at least one of these as it will grab people’s attention and give your stand a more well rounded presentation of what you do.
Important Additional Extras
Once you’ve decided what you want to show, you will need to consider how to present the work. Is the fair a table top event, or will there be walls that you can hang your work on? This will influence how much work you will want to take, and whether you want to show the work framed or unframed. A browser is a great way to present a larger number of unframed works.
Print Fest
Photo credit: © Kate Kirkwood
Unframed work needs to be kept safe. You can do this by slotting it into plastic sleeves that can be kept in a portfolio, or you can back them with mountboard or foamboard and wrap with cellophane wrap, or slot them into polypropylene sleeves. You will need a craft knife or scalpel, a cutting mat and a metal ruler if wrapping in cellophane wrap from the roll, as well as some some scotch tape (this is best as it doesn’t age the way regular sellotape can).
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Jackson’s Portfolio Sleeves – 140 Microns – Singles and Packs
Mapac Retrofolio Case A4
Mapac A2 Professional Presenter Leather Look – Spiral Bound 2
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Studio Essentials White Core Mount Board 60 x 80 cm Extra White
Crescent Art Foam Board White 3 mm 19.5 x 27.5 in
Jackson’s Self-Seal Polypropylene Bag Pack of 10 – A6
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Handover Ruler Steel Ruler 60 cm (24 in)
Jackson’s A4 Grey Cutting Mat Double Sided Centimetre and Inch Grid
Jakar Heavy Duty Utility Knife with Retractable Blade
For framed works, ready-made frames can help keep costs down, although this only works if your pieces are standard sizes. In the Jackson’s framing section you will find ready made frames that fit standard canvas and panel sizes. For any pieces that are irregular in size, Jackson’s offer the Jackson’s Bespoke Frame Builder, where you can upload an image of your work and preview how it looks in any of the mouldings available.
Remember to consider how the work will hang. Mirror plates make work extra secure on the wall, but if it’s the kind of fair where works are taken away as they are sold, you’ll need to keep a screwdriver handy for getting the work down again! Otherwise there are other hanging options, such as picture cord and string or a sawtooth hanger, which is attached to the back of a picture and then hangs on a nail which is hammered into a wall. A ruler with a spirit level can help with getting pictures hanging straight, although in most cases judging by eye is best as sometimes venue walls (especially in older buildings) can be a little wonky and cause optical illusions!
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Jackson’s Framing Accessory Pack 16 – 2 x 46 mm Brass Picture Plate and Screws
Lion Framing Hanging and Framing Hardware Picture Cord Roll White N 100 m
Lion Framing Hanging and Framing Hardware – Strong Picture Hanging Nails – 8 in Pack
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Lion Framing Hanging and Framing Hardware Saw Tooth Hangers – 4 Hangers and Screws
Jackson’s Framing Accessory Pack 3 – 75 cm Low Stretch Cord and 2 x (2 Hole) D’rings
Handover Cutting Ruler & Handle 60 cm
For table top fairs, finding a way to create height on your table could help you to display more work. Table and display easels can help show work vertically, which makes it easier to catch a passer-by’s attention. Old boxes, shelving units, and point of sale displays for shops can be used to help make the most of your table top display.
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Studio Essentials A-frame Display Easel 12 in
Jackson’s Tripod Display Easel Beech Wood 30 cm
Jackson’s H-Frame Table Easel
Promotional Materials
Business cards can be a great way to keep your work in people’s minds after the fair – make sure you mention your website, social media and contact details on the card. Greeting cards can double up as business cards with contact info stated on the reverse, and what’s better is you can sell them! There are many QR Code generators online, and it can be a fun way to get your audience to visit your website or social media platforms straight away – simply create your QR code to link to your website and print it out to put on your display.
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Biyomap Biyosafe Foam Corner Protector – Sides 100 mm Long – 25 x 35 mm – Set of 4
Biyomap Reusable Artwork Shipping and Storage Bag 40 x 50 cm (Light Blue)
Biyomap Biyosafe Foam Edge Protector – 20 cm Long 25 x 35 mm – Set of 4
Wrapping and Transportation
Biyomap Art Bags and foam protectors will save you a lot of time wrapping artwork for transportation in comparison to the less eco-friendly alternative of bubble wrap. The art bags are available in a range of sizes, and it takes seconds to slide framed and unframed works in and out of them. However, if you’re going to let collectors take the art bag away with them, remember to factor this cost into your artwork price, or bring some bubble wrap in case of sales so you can hold on to the art bag. Foam edges and corners offer extra protection if needed. If you order frames for delivery from Jackson’s, hold on to the packaging it comes in as it can be really useful for transporting work to art fairs.
Print Fest
Photo credit: © Kate Kirkwood
Art Fair Checklist
1. Research what art fairs are happening when, ask contacts for their experiences of art fairs, check that the art fair websites show images that align with what you make and price points align with your pricing. Consider too the transport costs and logistics of getting to the fair.
2. Make a list of deadlines and art fair dates for the events that interest you.
3. Make an honest application – showing images that truly represent what you will want to show. Write a statement in the third person (unless otherwise instructed) that focuses on the themes and processes that you use in your practice.
4. Plan what you would like to show, taking a range of work and making you have pieces that are a range of sizes and prices. Ask yourself if your stand will reflect your practice in general, and will it be as eye-catching as possible.
5. Think about how you will plan your display with plenty of time, so that you have time to order any display materials you need, as well as framing.
6. Order business cards and greeting cards (or you could make your own).
7. Create a QR code and print it out (you might like to mount it on mountboard so that it is sturdy and reusable).
8. Order Art Bags and foam protectors to fit the works you want to take to the fair.
9. Make labels for artworks if needed – parcel tags can easily be attached to picture cord on framed works, or otherwise you can print out labels and spray mount them to foam board or mountboard. Labels are usually attached to a corner on the front of unframed work, or on the reverse, using a sticky label.
Download and print the Art Fair Checklist
Bath Art Fair
Photo credit: Anna Barclay
Further Reading
The Relationship Between the Artist and Their Materials
Jackson’s Painting Prize 2022 Exhibition at the Affordable Art Fair Hampstead
Jennifer Conner: Jackson’s Painting Prize 2022 Expert Judge
How to Create the Best Digital Photographs of Your Artwork
Shop Art Fair Materials on jacksonsart.com
Exciting! Those are my dog paintings! And it was my first
art fair as well