Our home needs art. Where can I discover young artists?

October 3, 2020 9:39 AM

We’ve been living in our house for a few years now and have lots of wall space that needs filling. As someone with a BFA, I remember all too well the struggle to make money with my art. There are so many talented people out there — how can I find them so I can buy their work (or prints of their work)?

I’m sure this is something you can use Instagram for, but I don’t use it. In my mind, there’s some perfect place where I can just check out the work of lots of folks, regularly updated. Blogs could work!

posted by summerteeth to Media & Arts (22 answers total)

Try Deviant Art. Some of the items are available to buy, and with the diversity of the artists, you're sure to find something you like.
posted by ydaltak at 9:51 AM on October 3, 2020

You could try looking for local artists on Etsy, too - it might be a bit hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, but the low barrier to entry also means lots of new artists have storefronts there.
posted by sagc at 9:58 AM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

There are some great Twitter tags: #visiblewomen, #drawingwhileblack, #comissionsopen, #ArtistsofSEA, #visiblenb, and a ton of others that naturally I can't remember right now. There's a lot of fan art and character-focused art, but there's also a lot of other good stuff if you look around.
posted by wintersweet at 10:01 AM on October 3, 2020

There also happens to be an online open studio event in San Francisco right now--looking for other virtual open studios might be fruitful. (I know none of these are a directory of art, exactly, but...)
posted by wintersweet at 10:06 AM on October 3, 2020

Society6 is my fave place to while away hours online - here are some pieces I like, though their blog is also full of cool recs. Quality of the prints is good, too.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 10:07 AM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Google your city/neighborhood/town name and “art walk”. A lot of community art walks have added a virtual component where you can look at the works online before deciding to go look at them in person at whatever local business they are displayed in.
posted by matildaben at 10:09 AM on October 3, 2020 [6 favorites]

If you are in a city with an arts community of any size there are probably still gallery openings you can attend. Many cities have First Friday gallery stroll or arts crawl events about once a month where numerous galleries in the downtown area open their doors. Nowadays they should be outdoors and/or socially distanced, and you should wear a mask and stuff, but they still happen. Your city might have a listing of the events or arts community itself might have a webpage for the event. (and +1 the virtual component matidaben mentions)
posted by Eriogonum at 10:10 AM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

I've bought some really lovely prints through Static Medium, Arch Enemy Arts, and Nucleus Portland pretty recently. Usually I just follow artists I like on instagram and such and then either buy print releases when they have them, or purchase from their own print store if they maintain one. I'm not too sure how to find artists other than just searching around - you could follow some curation accounts like Beautiful Bizarre Magazine or some small galleries (corey helford gallery has some neat artists) you like to see if they feature anyone's work who really inspires you?
posted by euphoria066 at 10:23 AM on October 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I go to comics events, and when I do, I love the small-press/indie/zine section. There are always young artists there selling prints, and those prints are seldom what you might think of as typical comic art.
posted by Pallas Athena at 11:40 AM on October 3, 2020

Here are two aggregators that I know of:
https://flatfile.gallery
https://www.instagram.com/nyccritclub.flatfile/
posted by xo at 12:24 PM on October 3, 2020

As a fellow artist, thank you so much for being so conscientious of other artists! That's awesome.

I find it's easier to discover work than artists (thank you keywords). That said, I find a lot of cool art on Tumblr, and that site is good at directing you to other accounts.
posted by mermaidcafe at 12:35 PM on October 3, 2020

You live in Boston! There MUST be local art galleries to check out? Art walks? A rental gallery for the art museum(s)? That's where I find a lot of stuff I like. Pandemic makes all of this More Challenging, obviously, as does fall/winter. Maybe web search for local art fairs, as well.

If there's a specific style or subject you're looking for, I think that would help guide you. I feel like tumblr/pinterest are probably a good spot to start in that case. DeviantArt, Etsy, Society6, redbubble are also spots to check.
posted by curious nu at 12:56 PM on October 3, 2020

In the Before Times I often went to Cambridge and Somerville Open Studios. JP might also do this? The website of the organization will list lots of participating local artists and you can look at them individually. The school of fine arts at the MFA would have student sales. Lots of local coffee shops would hang available art as well.
posted by Hypatia at 1:27 PM on October 3, 2020

I usually go to my local art school's annual sales, where students and former students have booths selling their work. Since you're in Boston, you might be able to go to something similar at RISD in Providence. It looks like RISD also has a website for this.
posted by pinochiette at 1:43 PM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

+1 to 'end-of-semester art school sales.'
posted by catesbie at 1:48 PM on October 3, 2020

This is rough in the era we are living in, but still occasionally possible. We have bought local art from artists with space in a hair salon (they had a rotating selection of local artists gallery-style), bars, restaurants, and the first rest stop in Vermont. (It is a crazed looking oil painting of a hostile rooster.)

Friends, also, are great. An old friend of mine just sent me two great collages and I love them.

Bought a print from a local college kid of a barn in our town.

It's a good feeling and the pieces are special to us.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:44 PM on October 3, 2020

I am not sure how it works in Covid-19 times, but Artists for Humanity is an amazing organization that employees teens and trains them in a variety of mediums, and one option is their painting studio. Teen artists get paid an hourly rate, and any work of theirs that get sold they split the commission with AFH. My daughter participated in this program, and became a talented painter, and sold many pieces. Before Covid they had monthly (or quarterly) open houses where you could see the space, meet artists and look at artwork and purchase it.

Two websites that list Art shows in Boston are: Arts Boston and Artsy.com.

From looking at Arts Boston, it looks like some of the Open Studios of surrounding towns are now online. This weekend it is Brookline's Open Studio.
posted by momochan at 3:15 PM on October 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Previously. Not necessarily young artists, but still worthy of your support :)
posted by Chairboy at 10:41 AM on October 4, 2020

Lots of young independent artists/illustrators on Buy Olympia.
posted by thebots at 9:30 AM on October 5, 2020

Definitely your local stores and galleries. Young artists usually begin by showing their art in commercial spaces like clothing stores, restaurants and bars... To a google search to check if some local stores had vernissages in the past.
posted by newz12 at 10:58 AM on October 5, 2020

On Redbubble, Society6, etc, it's very difficult to tell whether you're buying art from the creator or from someone who swiped it to make a quick buck (and the sites are loath to remove them even when presented with evidence of the theft), so most of my artist friends find those places too artist-hostile to use. I ranted about this a bit more in an earlier Ask. Caveat emptor if your goal is to support the artist! Suggestions upthread for buying originals are great.
posted by churl at 3:59 PM on October 5, 2020

I know you said you don't use instagram, but could you just set up an account for this purpose, and then delete once you've found what you like? I like that with instagram you are buying directly from the artists, and supporting them that way, instead of someone else getting a cut

I have a lot of criticisms about instagram, especially since they were bought by FB, but its a fantastic place to connect with amazing creatives
posted by Zaire at 10:36 PM on October 6, 2020