The art of buying art

ONLINE EMILY McINNES

Founder and director of online store Eye Buy Art Credible sources: Search notable blogs or trusted media sources. You’ll see some of the same galleries listed.

Check out the materials: Make sure proper, longlasting archival materials are used. With photography, look for museumquality printing processes such as C-prints. Be quantity conscious: Avoid open or non-limited editions, where the image can be printed repeatedly — essentially, posters.

A FAIR WILL RAMSAY

Founder of the global Affordable Art Fair, and its sister fair, Love Art Fair Have a pen and paper ready: Write down the galleries and stand numbers of the artists you like. Have a drink and a think, then make another round. Forget investing: Buy what you like, not what you think you should buy. Don’t buy to match the sofa: A collection is a reflection of you, it’s whatever you decide to collect.

A COMMERCIAL GALLERY LISA KEHLER

Owner and director of Lisa Kehler Art + Projects Don’t assume galleries are out of your league: Galleries representing emerging artists are often quite affordable. Understand how pricing works: An artist’s popularity and experience are factors. Very generally, the bigger the piece, the bigger the price. Medium also matters: Oil paintings are often costly because of the time they take to dry. Finally, the more an artist’s work is collected, the more you can expect to pay. Affordable payments: Layaway and instalment options are good ways to acquire larger, more expensive works.

ONLINE MARKETS

Minted: Sells work of independent artists who are not accessible through traditional retailers.

Eye Buy Art: The goal is to make art affordable so more people can own it. They represent artists who have been reviewed by highprofile juries and named “ones to watch out for.”

Circuit Editions: Specializes in limited editions of contemporary photography, and print-based art.

20×200: Collaborates with artists to produce limitededition artwork exclusively for 20×200. Each piece comes with an artist-signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.

Society 6: An eclectic mix of art prints by thousands of artists from around the world.