Good Idea: Art Swapping

Around this time last year, Anna Ogier-Bloomer and Erik Sanner were putting on an exhibit in Chashama's Hell's Kitchen space called Have a Painting? Leave a Painting. Need a Painting? Take a Painting. From the title, you probably get the idea...

Located in one of Chashama's highly public performance windows, the exhibit enabled people to drop by with artwork to give (even hanging it on the wall themselves), viewing the other offerings, and sometimes taking a "new" work for themselves. It's a beautiful idea, with a few online cousins (see Artella or DeviantART's art trade group).

Art swapping makes sense in some instances, particularly for those of us without a lot of space. If you're an artist yourself, it's an opportunity to exchange work with your contemporaries. If you're a collector, it might be an option for circulating new works in your home and trading works you no longer want or have space for.

Have you participated in an art swap before? Is it something that you would be interested in? Please share in the comments below.

Read more about Anna Ogier-Bloomer and Erik Sanner's exhibit from last year at ArtCat, Art:21, and eriksanner.com.

Images: Hrag Vartanian, licensed under Creative Commons

Comments (8)

I think this is a fantastic idea. I can finally get rid of Dogs Playing Poker.

I think it's a wonderful idea! I'd love to swap out some of my paintings. Off to do some research...

why do you call it an "exhibit" and not an exhibit. Performance art is still art.
It is a great fantastic idea.

(Why is this performance art?)
I'd love to have this thing within reach!

i'm totally stealing this idea. thanks!

Presumably it's called an "exhibit" AND an exhibit because it blurs the lines between performance art and ordinary art transactions. The act of trading art becomes a work of art in itself.

dear readers,

you might enjoy the open call anna and i posted for prospective leavers and takers, here it is:

http://eriksanner.com/haplapnaptap/haplapnaptap.html

just to clarify - one thing co-curator anna ogier-bloomer (http://www.annaob.com/) and i were thinking about is that the penny tray doesn't always strictly serve as a swapping device. there may be people who never put pennies in, and there may be people who never take pennies out. most of the artists who participated (over sixty) donated work to somebody they may never meet - a kind of random act of kindness, in a way. we strongly encouraged takers to email the person who had given the work, and thereby hopefully encourage connections between artists and collectors. we heard a few positive stories back from givers who were contacted by their takers. ultimately the project ended up feeling (to me anyway) mostly about "giving" and "sharing" (and also the astonishing variety of aesthetic tastes).

unrelated to "have a painting, leave a painting..." but maybe still interesting for you:

east village traffic cone tours
http://eriksanner.com/enjoycones

exhibition "how to enjoy traffic cones"
http://eriksanner.com/random/2009/how_to_enjoy_traffic_cones/Chashama_Press_Enjoy_Traffic_Cones_090825.pdf

my blog
http://eriksanner.blogspot.com/

thank you for all your kind words!

- erik