What is an art exhibition? This is a question you might find yourself asking if you are new to visiting art exhibitions at galleries, or museums; I will explain what an art exhibition is in this blog post, so keep reading to learn what is an art exhibition?

What is an Art Exhibition?

An art exhibition is a public display of artwork—such as paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, or installations—organized to showcase the work of one or more artists. The purpose of an art exhibition can vary.

Photograph of an art exhibition with my work Remnants

What is the Purpose of an Art Exhibition?

There could be lots of different reasons for having an art exhibition. Art exhibitions can be held at an art gallery or at a museum. Sometimes they might be other places or venues as well.

Here are some reasons for having an art exhibition:

The art exhibition might educate viewers, who are people who attended art exhibitions about a new artist, or an existing artist.

An art exhibition might also showcase the work of a group of artists. This is called a group art exhibition.

If the art exhibition just has artwork from one artist, this is called a solo art exhibition.

Art exhibitions might also have a particular theme in the hopes of educating or having people discuss the artwork and what the theme is about.

Another purpose for having an art exhibition is to generate sales. Usually the gallery or museum will keep a percentage of sales that are made during an art exhibition anywhere from 30 to 50% of the sale, the rest of the sales go to the artist who made the artwork.

Artwork at an exhibition can also educate the general public about art history and different art movements, or art styles that happened many decades ago.

Themes of art exhibitions can vary into topics and you can have an art exhibition on really any topic at all.

Here are some possible topics that art exhibitions might be about:

An emotion
An event in history
Abstract art
A certain colour the artwork have in common
A particular place
A memory
A shared art material or technique

Photograph of my work Patched in an exhibition

As you can see, you can have an art exhibition on a variety of different topics. This makes art exhibitions interesting and gets people wanting to visit art, galleries, and museums more frequently.

Art exhibitions can be held in many places, such as:

Galleries
Museums
Schools or universities
Libraries
Outdoor or community spaces like parks

Art exhibitions can also vary in length that they are up.

It could be a pop up exhibition that is only up for a day or two, they could be up for weeks, or months. It is important to seek information on the gallery or venue website to see when the art exhibition opens and closes.

Art Exhibitions Have Different Events:

There are different events related to the art exhibition, encouraging the general public, or the viewer to come out to the venue to see the art exhibition. Here are some possible events that a gallery or venue might run to encourage people to come out to see the art in the exhibition.

Opening Reception:

Opening reception, usually at an opening reception at the artist, or artists who are featured in the exhibition attend the opening reception. Sometimes there's music or some kind of performance. Usually there is food like appetizers, as well as some drinks, like wine or sparkling water.

Artist Talks:

An artist talk- An artist talk might happen on the evening of the opening reception, or a different night where the artist will present their artwork usually in a slideshow format they might talk about their inspiration their research their process the materials they use the techniques they use, and how the artwork in the art exhibition was created this can be really interesting and informative especially if you're an artist, your self, or if you really appreciate the artists artwork.

Art Workshops:

An art workshop sometimes the artist will present some kind of art workshop, where people can come to make an artwork related to the artwork in the exhibition, or the gallery stuff might run an art workshop themselves without the artist present, in order to educate the public about art materials, or art techniques that are being used in the art exhibition.

Closing Reception:

A closing reception or party similar to the opening reception can be an end of exhibition party to celebrate the closing of the last chance to see the art exhibition.

I hope you have a better understanding of what is an art exhibition if you have any questions of what is an art exhibition just leave them below in the comments of this blog post.

Be sure to check out my contemporary artwork by clicking on the button below, to see some artwork that I have exhibited in different art exhibitions around the world.

See my Contemporary art

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