So you’re about to start your first art collection—you’ve cleared the wall space in your dining room (prime art real estate, especially if you live in a tiny city apartment without a view). You've measured, marked, and even used your compass app as a level for the first time. It’s a big deal! But your bank balance? Not as big. And that’s ok. No one’s suggesting that you rush out and drop several rent checks on a Koons. If you have blue chip tastes on a potato chip budget, we’re right there with you. Here are a few of our favorite resources for great, affordable art to outfit any room in your home.
Uprise Art, an online gallery founded by Tze Chun in 2011, specializes in affordable original art—like this gorgeous acrylic abstract on raw silk by Anastasia Greer ($480).
Paper Collective, a Copenhagen-based online art print and poster shop, is a great resource for any lover of abstract art and photography. This gorgeous plant portrait on heavy matte paper comes in under $100.
One “secret source” is The Real Real, a luxury shopping site with a collection of under-$1000 art to match it’s very much over-$1000 collection of Chanel bags.
Artist Debbie Carlos sells her work through her eponymous online store, but is currently spotlighting the work of others with her Democracy Print series, including designer and illustrator Madeline Rosemurgy’s political landscape print ($30).
It’s always a great idea to follow artists you love on Instagram and sign up for their newsletters, if they have them. Designer Saskia Pomeroy’s online shop offers signed limited edition prints for a great price.
Brooklyn-based Leif Shop sells everything you need for a well-curated lifestyle feed on Instagram—including original artworks for under $200. Emily Jefford’s watercolor and acrylic works on paper are a personal favorite.
Little Paper Planes is an online art shop founded by San Francisco-based Kelly Lynn Jones. The shop sells art prints, photography, and objects, starting under $50. Alyssa Block’s tongue-in-cheek illustrations are some of our favorites (from $35).
Artsy, an online art platform, offers pricing tools so that users can find works—from Matisse lithographs to original pieces from less well-known artists—on any budget.
Tappan Collective is another great outlet for affordable prints and original artworks from emerging artists, like Caroline Denervaud’s eye-catching ink and pastel abstracts (from $500).
Or, you could save yourself a ton of money and DIY a new piece for your home—we’ve got you covered there, too!
This article was originally published in May 2017.
Written by: Sean Santiago
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4 Comments
I loved instant-gallery and they supported charity but it seems they are no longer around :/
You can print art work from those for a dollar or so and then frame it.
Look for the Smithsonian and other books in the reference section, like herbs and flowers, or architecture that you are not allowed to check out...but just view...but you can put a page on the color copier.
As a poor student I did most of my art work with that and thrift store frames.
I knew one guy that photo copied Monet's Water Lilies...and then drew a grid on the back, cut it up, and enlarged each element..to 8x10...and made a mural that filled a wall.
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