Lit and Luz Hits Year 13, and the Numbers Tell the Story
Chicago's bilingual arts festival returns with a week of free programming, one ticketed night at the MCA, and attendance figures that matter in a lean funding year.
Art Real NY
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How Art Insurance Works: Protecting a Collection
An art insurance policy is a contract like any other: premium in, defined promise out, and a claims adjuster testing the wording after a loss.
Galleries in Nyc — Chelsea and Beyond: Mapping New York's Gallery Districts
Chelsea holds over 200 galleries, SoHo's dealers left in the mid-1990s, and the Lower East Side grew some 200 outsider spaces at its 1980s peak.
How Exhibitions Are Built: From Crates to Walls
The week before an opening is the part visitors never see. Here is how a show actually gets made.
Artists
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Covering Other Artists: The Fine Line Between Homage and Theft
Court records, not taste, separate homage from infringement: the Second Circuit's Koons and Prince rulings show how the fair use factors weigh borrowed work.
Artist Portfolio Tips: How to Build an Artist Portfolio That Gets Noticed
A noticed portfolio is a small edited image set, a plain statement, and documented work sent to fellowships and grants.
How to Price Artwork: How Artists Price Their Work Without Underselling
Galleries typically keep 25 to 50 percent of a sale, and consignment keeps ownership and risk with the artist until a buyer pays.
Self-Taught vs. Trained: Does Art School Still Matter?
The honest case for and against the MFA, and what actually builds a career either way.
Exhibitions
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Exhibitions Explained: Solo, Group, Retrospective, and More
A plain-English glossary of the exhibition types you see on gallery walls, and what each one asks of the artist.
Art Retrospective Meaning — The Retrospective: Why Museums Save Artists for Last
Retrospectives gather an artist's work across decades, staged late for the long view, and Canada's documented fee fight put pay behind the honor.
How Exhibition Catalogues Get Made and Who Pays for Them
An exhibition ends, but its catalogue stays on the shelf. Here is how these books are made, what goes inside, and who covers the cost.
Free Museum Days Nyc: Free Museum Days and Pay-What-You-Wish, Decoded
New York's major collections are cheaper than the ticket counter suggests — if you know which door to use.
Spotlight
What a Certificate of Authenticity Actually Guarantees
A certificate of authenticity promises a lot on paper. Here is what a valid COA contains, what it guarantees, and where buyers get fooled.
Artist Run Galleries — Co-ops and Collectives: Artists Who Became Their Own Dealers
When no gallery calls, artists rent the storefront, split the rent, and hang the show themselves. Here is how that model works, and where it strains.
How to Host a Studio Visit — Studio Visits 101: Hosting Collectors and Curators Well
What to stage, what to say, and what to leave out when someone important walks through your door.
The Shared Shop: How Wood and Metal Shops Serve Artists
Shared shops like UrbanGlass and the Lower East Side Printshop give New York artists hours on furnaces and presses that no solo studio budget could carry.
Cover Story
Steven Barber: Monument Maker to the President
From the White House Rose Garden to the U.S. Naval Academy, one Santa Monica filmmaker has made it his job to put American presidents in bronze.
Galleries
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Art Galleries Near Me: A First-Timer's Guide to Walking Into a Gallery
Commercial galleries are free, need no appointment, and welcome browsers; a first walk through West Chelsea's 200-plus doors needs only four moves.
Best Small Town Art Galleries — Galleries Off the Beaten Path: Destination Art Towns
Marfa, Beacon, and Provincetown each turned cheap space and one committed institution into small-town economies that run on art.
Artwork Pricing: How to Read a Gallery Price List and Ask About Artwork Prices
A plain guide to reading a gallery price list and asking about artwork prices, from what the list shows to who sets the numbers.
How to See ART etc.'s Plein Air Exhibit Before It Closes November 28
A Vermont gallery show of landscape painting, and a short guide to looking at plein air work the way it deserves.
Studios
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Forty-Five Years of Maryland Art Place: What a Baltimore Artist Support Organization Actually Does
A Baltimore nonprofit just hit a 45-year milestone. Here's what organizations like it do for working artists, and why the model matters.
How Bushwick Open Studios Actually Works: A Field Guide
Bushwick Open Studios runs one weekend each year and puts hundreds of working studios behind industrial doors open to anyone — here is how to work the weekend like someone who lives there.
How Working Artists Actually Find Affordable Studio Space in NYC
A practical guide to the three programs — Chashama, NYFA's Fiscal Sponsorship, and the city's Materials for the Arts warehouse — that keep New York artists working when rent doesn't.
When a Studio Doubles as a Classroom
Teaching from the studio, renting it for shoots and rehearsals — how New York artists turn one room into two incomes without breaching the lease or the fire code.
Art News
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Museum Restitution Art — Provenance and Restitution: The Stories Shaping Museums
In 2006 Austria returned five Klimt paintings to Maria Altmann, the largest single return of Nazi-looted art in the country's record, nine years after the non-binding Washington Principles of 1998.
Art Basel Qatar Names 82 Galleries for Second Doha Edition
Art Basel has unveiled the exhibitor list for the second edition of Art Basel Qatar, and it is a big one: 80 single-artist presentations by 82 galleries from
Art Auction Results Explained — Auction Results Explained: What Hammer Prices Really Mean
The hammer price is the winning bid; buyer's premiums, seller commissions and United States resale law decide who actually keeps the money.
Art Criticism Process: What Art Critics Actually Do When They Review a Show
Art critics look, describe, and judge. Here is what actually happens when a critic reviews a show, from first notes to published review.