Surviving Art

After a (too) long hiatus, we're back with a conversation with performance and conceptual artist Oreet Ashrey, and we chatted about the art world, not being boxed up as an artist and how there actually was a time when …

Welcome to another very special episode at Surviving Art. We’re doing market research in London as part of a cultural residency, provided by …

Welcome to a very special series of episodes at Surviving Art. We’re doing market research in London as part of a cultural residency, provided by …

Art is obviously emotional and as such its value is determined absolutely subjectively. The big question though is how, because even though …

Artist statements, even though they might appear like a load of pretentious art-talk (which many of them sadly are), serve a very important purpose: presenting your passion in a bite-sized package, to be easily consumed …

Be it online or in person, there’s a lot of competition in the arts. And the fact that the art world is much smaller compared to the world of business, law or medicine, only makes it harder for any one artist to …

In the last two blunders we discussed the importance of calculating ones base expenses and all-around financial needs on a monthly basis and the …

Oscar Wilde once wrote: “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.”

A true artist therefore should be the exact …

Creating a beautiful work of art is hard by itself, but when it comes to putting a price tag on whatever we made, it does tend to get even harder for …

Just as with sweeteners and coffee, you have natural and artificial options to spice up your art, too. Both sweeteners and symbols are created by …

More and more you see art shows being coupled with support programs that, to an art goer from a couple of decades ago, would resemble more a visit to …

An interesting sentence, uttered by a friend of mine while we were chatting over drinks, was that “Art has no purpose, only consequences.” and these six words really struck a chord with me. In today’s blunder therefore, …

Welcome to a very special episode of Surviving Art (done for the 33rd Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana! What makes this one so special are the interests of my guest: Amy Whitaker.

She is an assistant professor at …

Creating art is a two step process; first you obviously have to make it, but then you also have to show it and present it to the public, and …

A few days ago I had the great pleasure to interview Amy Whitaker (she has an MBA from Yale and an MFA in Painting from Slade University — an incredible mix!).She is also an associate professor at NYU and the author of …

A wonderful quote of which the author eludes me even after 5 min of thorough Google searching goes like this: “Life is a game. You can be a player or …

When we think about creativity and inspiration, we might picture an image of a spirit, a muse, that comes forth from the heavens and touches us in funny places at the most random of times imaginable.

But these moments …

To be frank, all comments on either the meaning or purpose of anything are irrelevant in the grander scheme of things, because all are but a form of …

Countless figures throughout history have tried to explain this incredibly complex question: What is art? And more importantly, what isn’t art?

But still the institutions have no real answer, no common ground upon which …

People have two intrinsic desires; to know themselves and to find a place in their environment. We constantly search for better ways, a clearer image of who we are and continuously try to place that projection of …

They say we are born as empty slates, pure white canvases onto which life leaves its marks and in the end produces a singular, unique imprint of …

Let's stop with this romantic preposition that one hears all to often when talking with artists in academia. We go through a list of 8 steps to keep in mind when creating a commissioned work.

Art is emotional and as such its value is determined absolutely subjectively. The big question though is how, because even though ambivalent, …

I have struggled with this question for years. Not only with figuring out the value that I can provide to society, but the value I have for myself. But, even though you can find blueprints of how to build an atomic bomb …

A lot of us may think that artists are the only ones in the art world that are struggling with the changes, happening via social media platforms, online sales platforms and other PR, marketing and advertising related …

Jasper Johns’ first show at the Castelli gallery was an enormous success for the artist and started off his career in an unprecedented way. But they exact method used by Leo Castelli (one of the biggest galleries to …

I have been noticing a lot of my peers creating exclusively museum sized artworks and/or installations, but most of them are failing to ever sell a piece they make. And sure, large works do have their place — a lot of …

One of my early mentors in the arts once told me a story about her artist friend that used to come by her studio and show a lot of interest in her …

First it came for the hotel businesses, then the taxi drivers and food delivery services, the radio stations and telecommunication providers. It’s coming for all of us in the arts too. But there’s a good thing about the …

To tie together the previous two blogs, I want to discuss what is in my opinion the highest and most complex function that art has in human society — the artificial creation of the experience of the sublime.

Various sources state, that about 10% of people worldwide are either not part of any religion or agnostic, and a big chunk of these people are …

Religions have defined cultures and people since the beginning of time; man time, not time time — unless you ask a theologian. They will tell you …

Contrary to common belief, art is not a material thing. There are no traits that an object has to posses to be deemed a work of art. But, that doesn’t mean that art does not need to be embodied in an object.

At its core, art is an experience. And like all human experiences, it’s created through perspectives — so the idea that 100 people will see 100 different things in the same work of art, probably doesn’t come as a …

This is not a social commentary folks, so for anyone expecting a rant on all the junk that gets sold off as artistic masterpieces; I’m sorry to …

The tag word today is ideology; every piece of art has its own story and thus its own bit of ideology infused into it. And the main question for all …

The kind of art we produce has an enormous effect on the end customer we attract; pretty flower paintings will attract people that like flowers. 

But this does not translate directly; some of them are much fonder of …

There are a few companies that really know what they’re doing — even if we don’t agree with their products, their models of how to sell said products are the best in the world — and we artists can really learn a lot …

I guess most of us don’t become artists, but end up artists. What I mean by this is that as the kids that grow up in an engineer household, filled …

The internet, especially social media, have given us an incredible tool — we can now potentially reach anyone in the world. If before you had to go …

There is a wonderful analogy used at the beginning of the book The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, where the author describes any entrepreneur as a company …

Just like Ferrari and Honda don’t use the same pricing model for their products, we artists have to differentiate between two distinct ways to approach our prices. Depending on whether we aim to have a go at the gallery …

Being an artist is a full-time job and then some; creativity doesn’t just come on its own and setting up a routine for us to be able to create day in …

As tastes in art are incredibly subjective, the value of any particular piece can seem like it has been decided upon on a whim. But while this may …

Knowing who to sell to and what their needs are is crucial; too many artists struggle with not knowing who their target group is or what they want. While we might think that portraits are for everybody (I mean, the …

Up until this point, we have been discussing pricing as a one-sided equation of how much I as an artist need to get, to pay for whatever my lifestyle or other financial requirements are. But sales are never just a …

We’ve talked about setting our prices by the hour and calculating them via size and base fees, and now it’s time to tie it all together and talk …

Cars can sometimes be confusingly used to extend ones, well, let’s call it perception of self to be kind. Art on the other hand, cannot only provide …

In yesterday’s podcast, I discussed the importance of calculating ones base expenses and all-around financial needs on a yearly basis, and today …

Story is Everything is a booklet I prepared for United Art Space and in this podcast, Michelle and I discuss the importance of storytelling, narrative and context in art. And, if you like to get to know more about …

From the three ways one could determine the value of our work, the hourly-based pricing model is probably the most popular one, as most other jobs we …

The first painting I actually sold was done at a live-painting performance; me and my friend were part of an awards ceremony in high-school and had a …

I got the big news: A wealthy collector — appearing out of the blue, coming all the way from northern Germany — was interested in my work. He and his …

Throughout history, artists have created an ineffable amount of value for humanity, but there will always be a wonderful irony around our value …

Pricing our art — especially at the beginning — can be a daunting task and while numerous factors have to be taken into consideration, there is one that doesn’t get talked about that much. The problem is though, it’s …

With the commoditisation of paintings, sculptures and other wall furniture that one can buy on Etsy, a question pops up: Are we artists or artisans? 

During a conversation I had with a friend of mine about a show I got invited to in the summer, she mentioned ROI and how her goal was to produce the most effective show with the least amount of capital. And while the …

As far as my hippy side is concerned: Art is a miracle, that has allowed the human experience to grow well above its immediate physical needs and given us the ability to build this magnificent wonder that we call …

Today I want to share how I approach my gallery hunting; what helped me in the past and what didn’t and what I do, when focusing on getting representation. Do keep in mind that everybody has a different way of doing it …

Yesterday I wrote about tactics — cold calling — and the effects such an approach might produce, but today it’s all about strategy. But there is a …

I’ve talked a lot about the particularities of what a good application should look like and how to find galleries that resonate with your work, and …

The only true tactic that ever worked for me in the beginning and has allowed me to periodically get invited to collaborate with curators and exhibit …

You created a professional portfolio of your work and have a nice, well-prepared CV to compliment it in your application. But what now?! Before going …

Similar to a CV, the portfolio of works is an important document to have as a creative; not only does it make your life easier when applying to open …

An interesting article popped-up a few days ago on Artnet, stating that predominantly red or blue monochrome artworks sell for considerably higher …

Yesterday I tried to break down the artist CV and all its features, but I just couldn’t stop feeling like I needed to address video too! So in …

A well prepared CV is the corner stone of any application, but unlike financial advisors, marketeers and other professionals, artists can’t really do much with the standard form that so many others use — aka. we usually …

Yesterday’s blog dabbled a bit in talking about things to keep in mind when searching for gallery representation and after a lot of feedback from all of you reading my blunders I decided to expand on it and provide a …

The amount of CVs and portfolios the average gallery receives on a daily basis is immense, so having a good tactic when trying to approach one is …

Today’s mother’s day in Slovenia and while unrelated to art it got me thinking about our ability to do what we do. 

Without a mom, we obviously …

I feel there is a misunderstanding in the art world, that may or may not be a reality for you, depending on where you are and how strong your local art market is. But in Slovenia and many other countries, it is very …

The number of people producing art has never been higher and with everybody including your aunt trying to sell their work and get exhibited, only the best actually manage to do so in the end.

But the issue with art is …

If in 2007 blogs were all the rage and almost anybody that was somebody online had one, today it’s podcasts. And with platforms like Anchor.fm offering free hosting and distribution, there really are no more excuses …

Today, everybody has a webpage; from the free options at Wordpress, Wix or other web providers to the more sophisticated self-hosted options that I …

Even though mailing lists seem like a thing of the past, they are still an irreplaceable building block of any creative business. Regardless of whether you’re writing daily blogs like me, or if you use your mailing list …

Posting a lot on your media platform of choice and doing so on a regular basis is a must if you wish to propagate your message and your art into the …

After spending months or days (or minutes — for all of you speed painters out there), it’s finally time to decide how to present your work! And the …

Regardless if you paint, sculpt, make experimental video installations or are a political performance artist, the main goal for all of us is to …

They say you have to love what you do, because you will be doing it for the rest of your life, but my question really is, if this is a sustainable way of looking at creation and life in general, or just a generalisation …

Yesterday evening I attended an exhibition opening titled “Happiness for you and your family”. It was a show about the problems of immigration and deportation and tried to showcase the issues of inequality among people …

Speaking from personal experience, the only really important thing people told me to do as an artist was marketing. But while this may be true, it …

If you’re just starting out, being part of an artist group is a wonderful place to be for many reasons. A group of likeminded or diverse individuals …

While each person is different in almost innumerable ways, we all follow the same basic modes of operation and have the same needs, so knowing these …

To experience art is to have a conversation with it and with ourselves in a safe place, where we can really immerse ourselves into the depths of our …

We all have probably experienced that “click”, a moment when things suddenly fall into place and the big picture finally becomes clear. These “clicks” tend to happen randomly and it may seem like no real method is …

A few days ago the Frieze Magazine’s Twitter profile posted this thought: “Art world addicted to unpaid work, survey finds.” with a link to their article. Packed with gems like this: “working for long hours was regarded …

Rather than taking everything we do overly seriously, I believe we should have fun with what we do first, because we can still get an important …

Borrowed from the late Zig Ziglar, the title may ring true to anyone, not only artists and creators. But unlike accountants, bricklayers or welders, the scope of what our craft can be is immense and it’s much easier for …

Regardless of how proficient a writer, painter, or sculptor becomes, no matter how much knowledge they gather up over the years, it will probably …

We all have probably encountered this scenario in our lives: After months of nothing you finally get an opportunity to work with a business or individual that needs some creative work done and after the first coffee you …

They say good art captivates you, but great art can transform your life. But like with any sales pitch, the real question is: how much is the premium of going from good to great really going to cost me?!

The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord is a wonderful and angry book that speaks about how our society has diverged from the authentic human …

“Study Finds Artists Become Famous through Their Friends, Not the Originality of Their Work” is the title of an interesting article, published on Artsy a few days ago. While a bit of an overstatement, it has a lot of …

Be it as a person, a society, a business or a local community; art gives us the tools to express ourselves and to connect, create common identity and …

Unlike our average commodities, art’s value isn’t judged by the materials used, neither by the labour it took to create it, because a quickly made blotchy cheap-paint-on-rubbish-canvas Rothko painting will be much more …

Art is obviously subjective and its prices even more so, but the big question is: If Pollock’s work can be more than 10 times as expensive as a …

We shouldn’t just be painting pictures on canvases and Fabriano paper, we should be painting mental images onto the minds of our followers and …

Regardless of whether you wish to get signed by a gallery or attack the market directly via online stores and social media, don’t think too much about how your work looks compared to all the other similar creators, …

The art market is a volatile place for investors, and these are the people gallerists cater to, so there are certain check boxes your work has to …

Taking the time to create a great artist statement will help you clarify your wording, so you can give a short and captivating presentation anytime you find yourself in front of an interested buyer, are giving an …

As art is subjective, we can never really take full control over how a viewer of our show or a customer who bought one of our pieces will understand …

As humans, we couldn’t have been more proud of the lineage of artistic mastery that our planet had created over the years, and we had every reason …

There is a force, that governs how we go about our lives; Meal deal or a nice salad? Wake up at 5:00 or snooze until 10:00. Get yet another outfit or just stay content with the clothes we have? Go to work, building your …

Unlike the still common belief that making great art will attract people who might like and even buy it,  the reality for most of us is the exact …

Even just talking about a particular piece of art differently can alter its value; consider if you described a meticulously carved wood sculpture in …

“The Most and Least Wanted Paintings” was a project done between 1995 and 97 by the artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid. Their premiss was simple: Go out and ask a bunch of art consumers and non-consumers what they …

Many companies that produce some form of tangible goods, usually tend to diversify their offering into segments: entry level, core package and …

I have finally found the time to watch the new arty horror movie Velvet Buzzsaw. The trailer, like the whole movie, really intrigued me in the first …

We’re all living on the web now. We talk through texts, we speak to each other via phone and we follow our friends and enemies on Instagram, so we …

No sane business owner has ever said: “Let’s sell this doohickey here at a 10% loss and make absolutely no calculations as to how much we need to …

From urinals to canned pop and machines that produce it, the idea of what can be called art has been stretched in the last decade to more than just …

While browsing the web yesterday I came across a Twitter post from whoever manages the The Art Market Twitter account, sharing an article on Artsy about new art and design fair in Brooklyn called Object & Thing, and …

It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO of Nike, a student at the Academy or jobless and receiving welfare — a day only has 24 hours. If then, you want to make something out of your life, time management is imperative.

Around the year 2011 Jayson Musson, an artist from New York invented Hennessy Youngman — a persona one could describe as the homie of the art world.

A few months ago Christie’s held the first-ever auction of art created by artificial intelligence. A work of art made by a computer algorithm called GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) titled Portrait of Edmond Belamy, …

While it’s wonderful to enjoy our process and to like talking to other artists and art lovers about philosophy and the meaning of life, it’s really …

Here’s a shocker I realised today: YouTube has been around for almost two decades! And websites like Blogger and Facebook even more than that, so social media and its power to potentially reach millions of people has …

I had an interesting conversation on Facebook the other day about the struggle we artists tend to go through because of the nature of our work. 

Nothing to do with having to be sad and crazy to make art (a dumb myth if …

Lately I have been listening to and reading a bunch of books on time management, work ethics and just all-around self-fulfilment and motivational …

The spectator is the one who decides what a particular piece of art is all about. Depending on how much we’re educated, what kind of an emotional …

We use art to find similar souls amongst the masses of people; those who understand beauty and aesthetics in the way we do, those that are sensitive …

We continue this series of podcasts revolving around the question: “What makes something art?” with a small dissection of what the phenomenon of art …

Just as everybody felt that Duchamp’s wall toilet conundrum was almost flushed out of the art world’s system, cleansed by Richard Long’s walking escapades, Ed Ruscha's thorough documentation of the Sunset Strip and …

After yesterday’s podcast we have come to the conclusion that a mere word or image does not have any intrinsic meaning accompanying it. As weird and illogical as this might seem, we must never forget that every time we …

Continuing yesterday’s podcast post about communication, I would like to focus on a crucial point that I see might well be one of the greatest …

The way communication happens is actually amazing because of the weird and maybe illogical nature of how information “travels”. While we may imagine invisible vibrations traveling through space from one’s mouth to …

Every small tribe has their own language, and the variations between Classical Academic Painter English, Conceptual Feminist English and Modernist Abstract Expressionist English are so abundant and so distinct, that one …

Colourful ties, fancy watches and flashy rings. Or maybe a new Apple computer, giant Wacom Cintiq tablet and a nice new mirrorless Nikon Z7. Whatever …

We creatives are curious by nature, which makes us lifetime learners; constantly trying out new things and always expanding our skillset. Everyday we find something new, some spot of life where we haven’t ventured …

I remember when I first started to draw the human body; it didn’t really start with a full nude or portrait or any body part for that matter, it …

Art can be beautiful. It can be ugly or just plain disgusting. The variety of emotions that artists can produce with a few brushstrokes is …

One of the more underlying issues of open calls is the sheer amount of artists, who can now apply to such open calls and with such a supply, naturally the demand becomes more picky, meaning the specifics of each open …

What if we wanted to play basketball in the NBA, but decided that, because of financial constraints or other reasons, we just won’t be looking for …

The best portraitist will know you better than you know yourself and show that self in the painting she is producing, the best photographer will show the true character of whoever he is portraying and so will the …

Because you could be making the most wonderful umbrellas the world has ever seen, but if you decide sell them in the Atacama dessert, you might just …

Aristotle wrote: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” While educated can mean many things, it …

If Martin Luther King had Snapchat, do you think he would be taking selfies with his new Air Jordans rather than fighting for his cause? But what if …

Sooner or later some new technology is invented and becomes available to the masses, usually being either easier, quicker, cleaner, more efficient, …

From linen canvases to plaster and genes, the share amount of mediums available to artists today is historically speaking at its very peak. While some prefer analog ways of expressing themselves, others like to work …

Many of us may be familiar wit the book Steal Like an Artist by written by Austin Kleon. In this book he describes how countless famous artists have been “stealing” other artists styles, ideas and just about anything …

Communication has stopped being the exchange of emotion and has stagnated to merely an exchange of information. You don’t need to go outside to know the weather is bad, you don’t need to go to Rome to see the Pantheon …

What many of us present as an artist statement (I was guilty of this for a long while) is usually exactly the opposite of what it should be; we focus …

They say there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. I think something similar applies to making art too. Let’s say I decide to make a new …

In 1976, artist and critic Brian O’Doherty published his essay “Inside the White Cube”, that not only created lots of buzz in the art world, but gave …

It sounds grand to be overly productive, to wake up at 5:00 in the morning and work till 23:00 at night, but the issue with most people I know who …

Today, it isn’t as much about one work, or even one exhibition — what matters in the long run is the totality of our production and most importantly …

Rather than waiting for destiny, I am a fan of action, but the problem with a lot of us is, we are constantly searching for that one piece of information that will change our lives. Now, what if I shared with you today …

People will always bicker and whine, but at the same time, there will always be those of us, who show up and do the work. And now, through the powers of social media and those small metal and glass devices in our …

Where I come from, we haven’t really seen any upward movement from the private art market since the 90s (not even when almost everywhere else art …

Knowing does not equal doing, but feeling almost always leads to action. Because emotions are actions, physical states of our bodies (you can’t really feel sad while running a marathon) and while using facts to persuade …

About 20 years ago almost nobody had a website, let alone a personal web portfolio of his or her work, but with WordPress and Squarespace came the …

We have been making art since the time we were living in caves, so the act of artistic creation is older than civilisation itself. Regardless of …

We are the creators of narratives, it is our job to produce stories and to communicate those stories to others. Be it feelings of pleasure, anger, excitement, or a well intended warning, a good creator knows how to …

All success stories, regardless if in the field of fine art, business or invention, are usually paved with failure — and not just with the occasional small mishap or two, many come in the form of a constant stream of …

The art market can be divided into roughly 5 segments: 

1.) The direct market 2.) The primary beta market, 3.) The primary alpha market, 4.) The secondary alpha market and 5.) The auction market. 

Today we will be …

The art market can be divided into roughly 5 segments: 

1.) The direct market, 2.) The primary beta market, 3.) The primary alpha market, 4.) The secondary alpha market and and 5.) The auction market. 

Today we will be …

You’ll hear people tell you about different techniques on how to price your work, but usually these are artists, who mostly do one thing and what works for a classical portrait painter doesn’t necessarily fit someone …

If your not happy with the idea, that its hard to sell paintings, it’s not being an artist that bothers you, it’s the act of painting and selling paintings, that you have a problem with. You have artists in banking and …