Natasha Wescoat is an artist and illustrator with a passion for community and social media. She authors a blog at NatashasArtCandy.com.
Promoting and sharing your art online may seem like a daunting task. The web is vast and filled with hundreds of new art sites popping up monthly. You may want to connect with other artists and collectors, and make connections with galleries offline, building relationships and gaining awareness. With the right tools, you can make this happen.
Take it a few steps at a time and find places that fit your genre of work. There are several sites that have become well established and recognized online and off for their professionalism, classy style, and incredible opportunities for exposure and networking.
Here are 6 virtual art galleries for artists:
1. EBSQ
EBSQ is an online art gallery and community that offers easy to use portfolios where you can upload art, a biography, and link to sites where you sell your work. They also offer online skills classes, tutorials, an online magazine, and online art shows judged by well-known professionals in the art world. In addition, how-tos and tools that are available to help you sell your work on auction sites like eBay.
The site offers a community to network and collaborate with other creative professionals. Membership is $7.50 monthly or an annual $78.00
2. Myartspace
Myartspace is a social network for art professionals - artists, collectors, students, teachers, gallerists, curators, critics and art appreciators. The site offers a place to show your art, connect with others, and gain opportunities to participate in competitions and shows around the world.
Myartspace has worked with art jurors from The San Francisco MOMA, the Tate Modern Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Whitney Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Bridge Art Fair, New American Paintings, the Art Institute of Chicago, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Membership into Myartspace is free. This is an excellent place for serious artists of the fine art genre, of any medium.
3. Artition
Artition is a new social network specifically for artists to showcase their work, blog, participate in contests, create groups, and sell or buy art. Membership to Artition free.
This is another great place for fine art of all mediums and genres.
4. Deviantart
Deviantart is a well known site that offers artists of all genres and mediums the opportunity to start their own virtual gallery for free. You can share, comment, and link to other artists’ artwork as well.
The service offers paid subscriptions that give you benefits like customizable channels, ad free pages, extra storage for images, and the ability to sell your art as prints or merchandise. Deviantart is a good option for those in a specific niche or genre.
5. Illustration Mundo
Illustration Mundo is a great place for illustrators and graphic artists to share, promote and collaborate with other creative professionals. Artists can enjoy Ask a Pro, where you can learn more about your trade and ask questions, read great articles by other artists, discuss topics in the forum section, and gain exposure with art buyers through the site.
6. Artist Rising
Artist Rising is a site by Art.com made for artists to showcase and share their work with potential buyers and other artists as well as sell fine art prints. There is a jurying process in which each month Art.com decides what artists to sell on their other sites, Art.com and Allposters.com. If you are picked, you gain extra exposure through their other main sites.
As a creative professional you have to decide what works best for your genre of work and know where your target audience is. Try out some or all of these sites, test the waters, share your work and get some feedback from those within the groups. Have another site to add? Tell us about it in the comments.
More resources for artists from Mashable:- The Artist’s Guide to YouTube
- Tweetable Art: 10 Twitter Tips for Artists
- The Artist’s Guide to Flickr
- Web Design Toolbox: 130+ New Tools to Make You a Better and Faster Designer
- 40+ Places to Sell Your Designs Online
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, lisegagne
Tags: art, artist, Lists, online galleries, virtual galleries
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