How to respect artists who work hard? Label their work! That is absolutely necessary. You can’t hang up artwork without identifying the artist. As you can see in the photos of the exhibit, this isn’t dentist office decor. This is an art show.
Don’t hang an art show like this:
No labels! So who did the artwork? Who knows! (I do, and I did 4 paintings in this show)
What I shared on Facebook:
No Labels isn’t just a political party! It’s also the status of this art show at the community center in Smyrna. I have four paintings in this show – none of them are labeled, and it’s been weeks since it was hung. So in case you go to see the show, I will label them here for you.
As a professional note, I have had a 30+ year art career so far, I have put together and been a part of dozens of solos shows, art fairs, and group exhibits. I have never in my life seen an art show where the paintings aren’t even labeled. This shows enormous disrespect to the artists and is, to be honest, offensive. I hope to put my own labels for my paintings next week, and I encourage the other artists involved in this show to also label your paintings and hang up an artist statement like one of the artists already did. This is a group show, we should all be treated with respect and we should all have all our paintings labeled and we should all have artist statements available to the public for them to read. There is no excuse for how this show remains hung. It’s like no one cares.
In addition, one person’s work is labeled, for some reason, and given a very prominent position in the show (right inside the door) two shows in a row now – and I believe that is clearly preferential treatment, which exists in a lot of art organizations, which is obviously not fair to the other artists – (but that’s another story for another day.) In any case, go see the show next week and maybe there will be more labels put up so you can actually identify who did all this hard work.
And that’s the thing, making art and painting is hard work, believe it or not. You don’t just hang an artists’ artwork and let it be anonymous.
[Aside: People who know me know I take this idea of artist appreciation quite a bit further. I don’t believe art shows should be free to view. Just like bands who perform, or actors, when you see the work product of a painter, you should have to pay for the privilege of seeing my art “perform”. You see, when you buy concert tickets, when you buy sports tickets, when you buy tickets to a play or a musical performance, someone pays those creative people for their work. No one pays artists when viewing their work, which is the most common way paintings are enjoyed. (Buying the art is a desired outcome, but sales really aren’t that common). Paintings are not heard, or watched, they are seen, and seeing them as they hang on a wall or an easel or a slideshow or in a movie, is the performance. Artists should never pay to be in an art show. Artists should be paid, both when the art is viewed, and then when it is purchased.
But that’s not often done, and to add insult to injury, now our paintings aren’t even labeled. This is truly the saddest art show I’ve ever seen put together. (I think one painting was hung up sideways too). I also had to straighten 3 of my paintings because they were hanging off-kilter, as were others there.
But of course please go see the show anyway! The artist should not suffer just because someone presented he show badly. Always support the artists. The show presenters/hangers are not usually even artists.
[Again my beliefs here go further – I do not believe non-artists should be hanging shows at all. Art organizations should be run by artists, not by people who are not artists, period. I have had other issues in one other art org. here where the president, who refuses to leave the org. even though now she’s quite elderly, is not an artist, but was some kind of teacher, (not sure of what, even) and she was bad at her “leadership” position, yet curated art shows and tried to market them (badly) on a regular basis with very little success for the artists.)
