Where can I buy affordable art? It’s a question worth asking. With the costs of storage, staffing, and advertising, most traditional auction houses are unable to sell works worth less than $3000AUD. They just wont make enough money. Sad. But it’s the truth. And as much as galleries would love to showcase more affordable pieces, they also have to think about their overheads and the costs of simply maintaining their space. Unfortunately the realities of business play a crucial role in determining what art makes its way into the traditional market.

Whilst most independent artists would happily sell a piece for $500-$1000 dollars, most have little opportunity to do so. They could rent some space at the local market, rent a retail store, or build their own website, but none of those methods are going to help them reach a large enough audience to survive. Maybe, just maybe, if the artist is a social media genius or has a friend or family member in advertising they’ll get enough people to their site to justify the costs involved in its creation. More likely they’ll struggle for months to create a site that is OK, difficult to update, even harder to find and that never turns a profit.

If the artist is lucky, and has the cash, they might be able to secure a place at one of the few affordable art fairs that pop up in our capital cities once a year. The Affordable Art Fairs in Melbourne and Sydney are great, but at over $2500 for the smallest exhibitor space, they’re really not that affordable for independent artists. Unfortunately, galleries are the most prominent stall holders at these fairs, and again, have to push more recognised artists and bigger pieces to justify their costs.

IKEA has a lot to answer for when it comes to affordable art. Affordable anything really. At the end of a not-so-leisurely stroll through your local IKEA you’ll find the art section. Not to take anything away from some of the images, some of them are quite nice. But they’re definitely not unique. Nor are they difficult or costly to produce. How much love and care can go into a monotone print of a Manhattan skyline that’s mass produced in the thousands? Not much. Yet it will still cost you $249. That could get you a pretty nice little piece from a local artist. If you knew where to find it.

And that’s where artFido comes in. We’re not trying to be the purveyor of all things beautiful. As the saying goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. What we’re hoping to do is simply put more in front of the eye to behold. We want local and independent artists to take their art to the world. We want galleries to show more art and promote more artists. Ultimately, we just want the world to be able to buy and sell more art. Because art makes us happy.

Click here to check out what’s making us happy at the moment.