I am participating in the Berlin art market on the 1st and 2nd of November - next to the Spree river at the Berliner Dom. This market takes place every weekend. This August, I decided to apply.
I have two major reasons for participating in an art market.
One, I love meeting artists and other creatives. And two, I have a lot of art lying around the house that I need to get out, to make space for new works.
Applying for this art market was relatively easy. I had a fill up a simple form on their website and give them a link to my portfolio (I sent a link to my instagram at the time). Then another email and a €106 payment later, I was in!
Once I was accepted for the market, I made a list of all the things I wanted to see. I took out all the pieces of art I had in the house and sorted out things I think people would like to buy (Basically removing my countless self-portraits).
It took a while to convince myself that maybe majority of the people coming to this exhibition won't want to buy expensive originals and I needed to do some prints of my work.
I also had a illustrated booklet that I'd been working on for a while.
I went to a few printers across town, and finalised on the ones listed below.
Central station (Website) - Pankow This place looks very professional. A bunch of large printers whirr-ing on the sides. I got assigned a computer. I downloaded my files and started the prints. The colours came out really good and each booklet cost me €4,20 to print. I was very happy with the double-side alignment and the print quality here, so I printed all my booklets here.
Solid earth (Website) - Prenzlauer Berg This place is very convenient for me to visit since I live nearby. The person here is very passionate about printing and helped me select the right paper and patiently explained how he wanted me to prepare the files for printing. I got all my postcards printed here for €0.80 each.
List of things I'll be having at my stall:
- Screenprints I did at a workshop at Leracet
- Barque plate recreations I'd done for practice
- A booklet of illustrations I made and quotes I picked from the book "The more beautiful world our hearts know ispossible" by Charles Eisenstein
- A couple of oil paintings
- Some cardboard cutouts and paintings
- Postcard prints of my watercolour work
I decided to bind the booklet pages that I got printed. I think this adds a lot of character to the booklet and shows my care for each one. Each binding took me on average 10 minutes.
But, but, what about style and medium consistency? This is something I struggled with when I first began drawing. I thought I would keep "practicing" until I had a good art style, and then I would "create" art. I finally realised, that what I kept calling "practice" was my art. This was my expression - doing. I now think of art like I think of hiking. I do it because I enjoy the process of creating. There is no pursuit to be better, or compete, or sell and make money. Long story short, no, there is no style consistency in my work, and that's ok.
Now the tough part, pricing.
For now I'll keep it simple. Postcards for €5, booklets for €10, original pencil drawings at €15, and a couple of oil paintings at €40, and €50
But pricing is a broader issue I think to frame my thoughts around further in the future.
I highly recommend artists (even if you think you just do this as a "hobby") to do something like. There are a number of flea and art markets in Berlin that you can participate for cheap rent/free.
Here's a non-comprehensive list of art/flea markets that I've found in Berlin:
KunstMarkt (Website)
Every weekend from 11-17
Table price: €104
Location: Mitte
Type: Art & Craft
Flohmarkt Arkonaplatz (Website)
Every Sunday
Table price: €20-30
Location: Prenzlauer Berg
Type: Flea market
Art Minius 21 (Website)
Every Saturday
Table price:
Location: Moibit
Type: Art
Be Market (Website)
Multiple times (Subscribe to their newsletter to be informed about open calls)
Table price: -
Location: Wedding
Type: Design & Art
Berliner Kunstallee (Website)
Multiple times
Table price: -
Location: Charlottenburg
Type: Art & Craft