Where can I buy contemporary art for home?

petes2008

Can anyone recommend the best place to buy contemporary art for a new house? All website I have viewed to date are overseas and seem extremely expensive. Ideally Im looking to pick up a pieces that sell for under €500. Any shop/website recommendations are much appreciated.
Thanks.

pwurple

Possibly not what you are looking for, but for that kind of money, have you considered decals?

I have a couple of BLIKs on a staircase and in a childs room. Might be a bit too contemporary?

http://www.whatisblik.com/shop/explore/birds-of-a-feather

http://www.whatisblik.com/shop/anise

ComputerKing

Op I'd look at a few local art galleries and see what they have or maybe if there's any cafes or shops near you that display art for sale they might have something you're interested in.

cheif kaiser

Have you thought about commissioning someone to do them for you? I had the same problem a few years ago with art been totally over priced so I found a and artist on the internet and asked them to do the paintings for me. Worked out great because I was able to choose the exact size of paintings I wanted. There are also loads of sites on the internet that have commission-able artists.

NIMAN

Could you give a few contact details?

cheif kaiser

Here is a link to the people who did my art work http://www.nowastudio.com/ and their ebay shop where they have loads of different styles http://stores.ebay.co.uk/NOWA-creative-art-studio

Diane Selwyn

I've a friend that does this kind of thing on commission as well - its a particular kind of style but if you like it they can customise photos or whatever you fancy - you can check out their work at http://monofaces.net/

Ambersky

I dont know if you are still interested in buying Irish Contemporary Art OP but you still have a few days to get into the RHA Annual Exhibition which showcases some of our Irish Artists best work.
http://www.rhagallery.ie/visit/annual-exhibition/
I think buying art is a bit like buying wine. Some people dont care about where its from or whether its considered good or not they just know what they like. Sometimes people find that their taste evolves and thy begin to appreciate wines from a particular area using a particular grape and they can tell the difference between that and the wines they used to like. And some people buy wine because its a good investment that others have put a price on and that will probably go up in value over time.

In the same way that you can educate your palate and your knowledge of wine you can educate yourself about art or you can just buy something that you know gives you pleasure. The problem is how do you know when you are getting value for money and when are you being taken for a ride.

Art that you find in curated exhibitions like the RHA has already passed a test, it has been chosen from thousands of entry's by people involved in the visual arts and well established artists. You can find art for the price you were quoting at the RHA and some much more expensive or you can take down the name of an artist whos work you like and look them up later online.
Anyone can have an exhibition if they can find a space for it and pay the rent, just being in an exhibition doesn't make it good or make it art.
A lot of the cheaper paintings are simply copies of photos, of people, sunsets, flowers or wild abstract shapes etc and are considered to be more home decoration than art. Looking just like a photograph or looking really hard to do, as the only thing going for a painting isn't usually a good measure of how good a painting is.
You will have to pay more for better quality and some people do invest in art they think will go up in value but to do that you need to know your art or hire/buy from someone who does.
There are good galleries all around Ireland its worth looking at their collections and reading the biography of the artists to get an idea of what they are at.
Here is a list of Irish Artists http://www.irish-art.com/irishartists.php
There are lists of galleries from all over the country online
This is a Dublin one that probably sells some reasonably priced work http:
//thedoorwaygallery.com/artists/painting/
Here is another
http://www.oisingallery.com/

Muahahaha

OP maybe try Kevin Sharkeys gallery in Temple Bar. I haven't been in in a good while but some time back he was doing a lot of works for around €500. Smaller works mind you but some of it was excellent if you like his style of art.