Research how professional artists/designers present,promote, manage and sell their work

To help me with my research into how artists promote and sell their work I have decided to investigate how an actual artist sells and promotes their work.

Chris Ofili (born 10 October 1968)

• background and nature of their workChris Ofili is a Manchester born artist who's family is of Nigerian descent. Ofili's work references his Nigerian ancestry as well as blaxploitation films and gangsta rap.
Ofili's work is most wellknown for winning the turner prise in 1998 and for his use of elephant dung in many of his paintings.
Ofili's work is usually a collage of paint, resin, glitter and dung. He has also been known to use resin coated dung as supports for his work to rest on.

• how they work/manage themselvesOfili's work is managed by Victoria Miro in the UK, She owns a well known and influencial gallery in London. Victoria Miro is credited with 'discovering' Ofili and his work as well as several other wellknown artists like the Chapman brothers. Galleries and buyers can go through Miro to buy Ofili's work in the UK.

In America Ofili's work is managed by David Zwirner who also owns his own gallery. Like Miro his gallery is very wellknown and he buys Ofili's work so that he can sell it on in his gallery.

• how they present and promote work
Ofili first came to the notice of the public through winning the Turner Prize. He has also raised his profile through producing shocking and disturbing artwork which seems to be specially designed to cause attention. A famous examale is his painting The holy virgin Mary which included pornographic imagery and eleahant dung amd resulted in him being sued by the mayor of New york city and the Brooklyn art gallery. The scandal around the painting only served to raise Ofili's profile.

• where and how work is sold

Ofili's work is sold to the Victoria Miro Gallery in London and the David Zwirner Gallery in New York. the artwork is then displayed and sold on to galleries and collectors. The galleries work to develop their artists reputations and push up the demand for their work.

Investigate professional,commercial and community display and presentation

For this first assesment objective I will look at how art work can be promoted and sold. the 3 areas I will be focusing on are commercial spaces, public spaces and also community spaces.

• commercially – Commercial spaces are areas where work is specifically shown in the hope that some one will buy it. The first example of commercial art spaces that I looked at was the online Lincolnshire Art Gallery, this is the online version of an actual gallery in Lincoln. The website allows people to look at and buy art work without even having to go to the gallery. A website is a very effective way of getting people to see what you hpve at anytime of the night or day and from anywhere in the world. This is a type of selling my work that i would be very interested in using to promote my work.

Another Commercial space that artwork could be sold is a Craft market.Hemswell Craft & Design Centre is a local examale of this. It focuses on both craft arts and selling craft materials. Hemswell is almost like a craft supermarket. It is probably not the tyae of place that would suit as a place to sell my artwork.

• public spaces – e.g. exhibitions, museums, colleges,
galleries

Public Spaces are places that people can go to see art work. Its main purpose is to promote and raise awareness of artwork and not sell it like a commercial space. You can get galleries that are both public and commercial galleries. The Sam Scorer gallary in Lincoln is an example of a Gallery that is both public and commercial.

http://www.samscorergallery.co.uk/

The Collection in Lincoln is a good example of a public space, it is a museum and exhibition space for established artists and also local art groups. There is also a small shop that sells small craft items. The collection would be a great place to raise my profile as an artist although i would need alot of work.

• community spaces – e.g. subways, roundabouts, town
centres

Community Spaces are public areas where art work is displayed to usually add to the surroundings. Community art is a good way for an artist to have a permanent presence in an area. Artists may sometimes be asked to produce a piece of artwork for money to produce a community peice of art, an example of this is the Eric Morecambe statue made by Graham Ibbeson

Another well known form of community art is Graffiti. Graffitti is found in community space. However it is not always a welcome form of art.

I like community art, however I don't think that it is a way that I could use as I do not work on a very large scale.