New Artist Fair Feature - Mark Powell

Since graduating from Huddersfield University, in which he accidentally enrolled himself onto the fine art course (but haven't we all done that at least once), Mark has had shows across the UK and the US. His practice centers around his beautiful and detailed drawing, for which he will use a biro pen on paper or envelopes he finds, and the painting of whatever slips into his mind at any particular time. This can often seem abstract and unrelated, though this is never the case.

Mark will be displaying his fantastic art work at the New Artist Fair!

Exhibition Fee Pain- worse than a trip to the dentist

So you're an artist, right? So you're absolutely loaded and can pay to submit your work to endless open shows or hire out gallery space regularly, right? Oh no, wait, silly me, most of us can't!

It is a difficult situation; you have to get your stuff out there, non? But I am genuinely annoyed by all of these 'open exhibitions' which charge you simply to submit your work- not get in, oh no, no guarantee of that, but just to try. What a nightmare.

Don't get me wrong, I am more than happy to pay fees if I am accepted into a show. I recently got in to the New Artist Fair (click here to visit their website!); they seem to have the set up right. Artists can submit work for free, then the chosen people who get to be part of the exhibition pay a fee. This way makes sense! I am sure most artists are happy to pay towards gallery hire, PR costs, man-power etc, but why should you pay when you have no clue if you'll even get a chance to exhibit? You could fork out a lot of money over a few months and find you've gotten into no shows.

I recently found a 'call for artists' to submit work. There was a £20.00 sign up charge, and £20.00 per picture you wanted to submit. They must be making a killing! Meanwhile I'm squinting at my bank account, (always dangerous) unable to see the spare £40 to enter. Bum.

I see a similar situation with my music friends (my father being one of them); however, as I point out to him, they certainly have a lot of costs but they rarely have to PAY to do a gig! Sure, they have to do free-bees to get known, but artists struggle to even do that!

I wish galleries and show organisers would give us a break.

*BIG DRAMATIC SIGH*