Stopped into a small gallery in St. Augustine last month and noticed something strange

I was walking through this little art gallery off St. George Street, not really looking to buy anything. What caught my eye was how empty the walls were. Maybe half the frames that were up had nothing in them. Just bare white matting behind glass. The owner said she does it on purpose, lets the space breathe so people can imagine their own art there. She told me it actually sells better that way. People walk in and picture their own living room. I thought that was an interesting approach for a gallery. Has anyone else seen shops doing this with empty frames?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona_reed10d ago

Respectfully, that sounds like a way to sell frames more than a way to sell art. The whole point of a gallery is to show actual work, not sell you on the idea of maybe hanging a poster later. If I walked into a space and half the frames were empty, I'd just think they couldn't afford to fill them, or they were between shows. It feels like a marketing gimmick that confuses what a gallery is supposed to do, which is let the art speak for itself.

barbara9675d ago

But honestly @fiona_reed, isn't a gallery partly about showing potential too? Empty frames force you to imagine what COULD go there, which makes you think more about your own taste and space. It's like a bookstore having empty shelves to make you picture your own books there, it gets you involved instead of just looking. So maybe the gimmick wakes people up to think about buying art instead of just browsing, you know?