Last night I attended the Pancakes & Booze Art show in San Francisco, which was the first art show I've done in over a year!
Getting back into the swing of things was rough to say the least. I'd forgotten how much time and effort needs to be put into preparation and execution, not to mention getting a cohesive set of work together!
What I love about shows like Pancakes or Raw, is that it really educates young and emerging artists. The first show I did, I just threw a couple of drawings onto a mat and hung it up with my name. Walking around the space you see other artists who have entire set-ups with business cards, title/price tags, prints for sale, framed worked, and overall a really great looking collection. It's inspiring because you're in the same room with them, so getting to that level doesn't seem like a huge task, like if you were to get your work in a gallery.
If you're planning on doing a local art show or hanging your work anywhere for that matter, here are some tips and suggestions:
- Have business cards - I'd order at least 500 because they're good to have on hand, and you'll run out
- Put your name somewhere in big letters with your IG name too! This makes it easy for people to find you. You might even want to put a picture/bio up, so at busy art shows, people know you're the one to talk to
- Frame your work - even if you just have a bunch of sketches ripped from your notebook, putting them in frames makes everything look professional and well thought out.
- Have title cards for your work with the price - people want to know what you created your work with, what it's about, and how much they can get it for :) Don't leave them wondering if this is for sale or not !
- Let people know if you take Square, Venmo, or Paypal - great tools for making quick sales
- Print out free little flyers - have a photo of you work on the front, and info on the back or do stickers! I collect these from artists I like and put them on my wall of inspiration. When I want to look into them, I can easily find them online!
- If it's first come first serve, get there early...better yet get there first. You don't want your work to be hiding down by the feet of everyone (that was me) - you want it to be the backdrop of all the fun Snapchat and IG photos!
- Most importantly - pull together all your best work - sketches included! This really helps tell a story of your process and helps people understand the final product better. Again, put things in frames, make sure your canvases don't have dirt smudges and stuff, and try to have pieces look like they go together. When I look at people's set ups, my favorites are the ones that look well thought out because it really emphasizes the artist's work :)
Eddy Lee
