The Art of Marketing for the Art Market

One of the most noticeable effects of these close artistic quarters is the cultivation of the seasoned convention pro. While this kind of setting can be hard on the less slick, it feels like the playground of those who have mastered the art of self marketing. Oil paintings in thick, matching, dark-wood frames grace sophisticated modular wall systems and glisten under custom lighting.

Some artists even use taglines to help craft their market appeal. The Magic of Pencil; Every Picture Tells a Story; Techniques from the Past… Memories for the Future. Almost everyone seems to have an angle. All of this branding and polish starts to form a veneer between the art and its audience. All of this added visual noise, repeated aisle upon aisle, begins to drown out the real music.

Fortunately, this is not a unanimous approach, and there are enough fresh, unassuming artists at the Toronto Art Expo to make the visit well worth it.

Paul Gilroy, a Toronto-based artist whose wry paintings flirt with mixed-media and assemblage, said that this is his fourth year displaying at the show. One of the less traditional artists at the venue, he layers poignant but subtle observational humour under candy colours and says that he tries to "push boundaries a lot, as that's what art should do." Gilroy finds that his uniqueness works to his advantage, with visitors returning to his booth after they have made the rounds of the show. His approach seems to be to let the works speak largely for themselves, which they do, with a visual language of delight.

One aisle over, Jean Feng displays her remarkable works of art that reveal themselves to be embroideries upon closer inspection. The appropriation of the materials of domestic craft for the creation of high art is one of the more recent movements in contemporary art, but the honesty of her approach gives the work a genuine quality, free from subversion or critique. She says that she has been making embroideries since she was a teenager and simply loves to do this work. Some of them take her hundreds of hours, and her hands are always tired.

Stev’nn Hall, a Toronto artist whose impressive photo-based works loom with gargantuan fluffy clouds, describes his perception of the difference between exhibiting at the Toronto Art Expo and the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. He observes that the TOAE seems to welcome everybody—being free and outdoors—and attracts a cross-section of the public, whereas this expo has a “different vibe” and feels more commercial.

The Toronto Art Expo is on until this Sunday, March 22nd, and is inarguably the best place to see as much art in a single space as possible…over the next three days—be it carefully marketed or a raw gem.

Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.