How to Price Your Art for Exhibition
By Herehood Team
Pricing art for a physical display is different from pricing for an online store. Here is a practical framework for setting prices that respect your work, suit the space, and make sense to the people who see it.
Pricing art is one of the hardest parts of creative practice. It sits at the intersection of economics and identity — how much is your time worth, how much did the materials cost, and what does the work mean to you? There are no universal answers, but there are frameworks that make the decision less agonising.
This guide focuses specifically on pricing work for physical exhibition — art displayed in cafes, shops, coworking spaces, neighbourhood galleries, and other venues where people encounter it in the course of their day. The dynamics are different from online sales, and the pricing should reflect that.
Start with costs, not feelings
The emotional weight of pricing is real, but it helps to begin with the concrete numbers. Every piece has a cost floor — the minimum you need to charge to avoid losing money.
Materials. Canvas, paint, clay, film, printing, framing, mounting hardware, protective coating. Add up everything that went into making the piece, including materials from failed attempts that informed the final work.
Time. Track how many hours a piece took. Be honest — include sketching, planning, reworking, and finishing. Multiply by an hourly rate you consider fair for skilled creative work. If you are not sure what that rate should be, consider what you would pay a skilled tradesperson in your area. Your expertise deserves comparable respect.
Overheads. Studio rent, equipment depreciation, software subscriptions, insurance, transport to and from the venue. Divide your monthly overheads by the number of pieces you produce in a month to get a per-piece figure.
Commission. If you are displaying through a platform or gallery, factor in their commission. On Herehood, that is 10% — the same for every creator, always. Some galleries take 40-50%. Know the number before you set your price.
Add these together and you have your cost floor. Never price below it.
Consider the context
A piece displayed in a neighbourhood cafe reaches a different audience than the same piece in a commercial gallery. This does not mean the work is worth less in one context than the other — but it does mean the buying dynamics are different.
Foot traffic buyers are people who were not looking for art when they walked in. They came for coffee, a meeting, a haircut. The art caught their attention. These buyers tend to be more price-sensitive — not because they value art less, but because the purchase is spontaneous rather than planned.
Gallery visitors sought out the experience. They arrived intending to look at art and are more likely to have a budget in mind. Pricing can reflect this intentionality.
Space type matters. A piece in a high-end restaurant may command a different price than the same piece in a community centre. This is not about the art's quality — it is about the economic context of the people who will see it.
None of this means you should underprice your work for casual venues. It means you should be thoughtful about which pieces you place where, and at what price points. A small print might sell well in a cafe; the original canvas might be better suited to a space where people expect to spend more.
The three-tier approach
Many experienced artists who exhibit in physical spaces use a three-tier system.
Originals. One-of-a-kind pieces priced to reflect their full material, time, and creative value. These are the works you are most invested in. Price them at what they are worth to you, not at what you think someone might pay.
Limited editions. Prints, small-run ceramics, or other reproducible work with a cap on quantity. These sit below originals in price but carry a sense of intentionality. Editions of 10-50 are common. The smaller the edition, the higher the price per piece.
Open editions. Prints or products available in unlimited quantities, priced accessibly. These are the entry point for someone who connects with your work but is not ready to invest in an original. They also serve as a way to earn from a piece long after the original has sold.
Not every artist works in a medium that allows tiers, and that is fine. The principle is about offering different entry points to your work, not about producing things you would not otherwise make.
Pricing for your first exhibition
If you have never exhibited before, pricing feels especially uncertain. You have no sales history to reference and no sense of what the market will bear.
Some grounding points:
Research comparable work. Look at artists with a similar level of experience, working in a similar medium, exhibiting in similar spaces in your area. What are they charging? This is not about copying their prices — it is about understanding the range.
Start at your cost floor plus margin. If a piece cost $120 in materials and time, pricing it at $180-$250 is reasonable for an emerging creator. As your practice develops and demand grows, your prices will move upward. Starting modestly is not undervaluing yourself — it is building a collector base.
Do not price too low. There is a floor below which pricing actually hurts you. If an original painting is priced at $30, people assume something is wrong with it. Low prices do not signal accessibility — they signal uncertainty. Price at a level that says you take your own work seriously.
Ask other artists. The creative community is generally generous with pricing advice. Other artists in your area have navigated this before. Ask what worked for them and what they wish they had done differently.
What to do when nothing sells
A display period where nothing sells is not a failure of your pricing. It might be a failure of context, timing, foot traffic, or simply the unpredictable nature of art purchasing.
Before adjusting prices, ask yourself:
- Was the work visible and well-presented?
- Did the space have enough foot traffic?
- Were the prices clearly displayed?
- Did the display period run long enough? (One month is often too short for a cafe setting.)
- Did anyone ask about the work without purchasing?
If people showed interest but did not buy, the issue might be price — or it might be that they needed prints as an alternative to originals, or that the purchase process was not clear enough.
If no one engaged with the work at all, the issue is probably placement or audience fit, not pricing. A different venue might produce a completely different result.
Commission and what you actually receive
When art sells through a venue or platform, commission reduces your take-home amount. Understanding this before you set prices means no surprises after a sale.
On Herehood, the commission is 10% on every sale. A piece priced at $500 means you receive approximately $435 after commission and payment processing. This is the same rate for every creator on the platform — there are no tiers, no premium memberships, no way to pay for better terms.
Some physical galleries charge 40-50% commission. A $500 piece at a 50% gallery nets you $250. This is not inherently unfair — galleries provide curation, foot traffic, reputation, and sometimes framing and insurance. But it is a significantly different equation, and your pricing should account for it.
Whatever the commission structure, price your work so that your take-home amount after commission still exceeds your cost floor. If it does not, the arrangement is costing you money.
Adjusting over time
Pricing is not permanent. As your practice develops, your prices should evolve.
Signals that it might be time to raise prices:
- Pieces are selling consistently within the first week of display
- You have a waitlist or repeat enquiries
- Your materials, studio costs, or time investment have increased
- You have been exhibiting for a year or more and have built a following
Raise prices gradually — 10-20% at a time — rather than in large jumps. This respects the people who have already collected your work and gives your audience time to adjust.
There is no formula that will tell you the perfect price. But if you start with your costs, consider the context, and adjust based on what you learn, you will find a range that works — for your practice, for the spaces you exhibit in, and for the people who connect with what you make.
Getting your work into spaces
If you are ready to exhibit, the next step is finding a space that suits your work. You can approach venues directly, connect through local art collectives, or create a profile on Herehood and let the platform match you with spaces in your neighbourhood that are looking for art.
However you find your venue, go in with your prices set. Know your cost floor. Know what commission applies. Know what you need to take home. The conversation with a space is much easier when you have already done the thinking.