Hanging Art – Tips and Tricks

Artexpo New York booth hanging tips
For those of you now busily planning your trip to Artexpo, here are a few art hanging tips to keep in mind as you visualize the layout of your booth (it’s never too early to start).

Hanging Art—Tips and Tricks

Center your works when hanging. The center of each work should be hung at eye level (average height is 5’6” – 5’9”).

Re-adjust lighting, clean the frames and glass, and use a level to ensure the straightness of every work.

Hanging Your Booth

  • As Andy Warhol said “less is more.” In the scenario below, you’ll see pieces hung in one simple line, making it very easy to view each piece separately or by taking a few steps back as a 5-piece set.
    Hanging Your Booth 1
  • This is a wonderful example of how to hang 3 different size pieces by the same artist (in this case Robert Motherwell). Notice your eye moving left to right from the smallest piece at the top to the larger piece on the right.Hanging Your Booth 2
  • This is a great example of how to hang large pieces together while allowing them “room to breathe” and to be viewed separately.Hanging Your Booth 3
  • This is an excellent example of a grouping of 6 of the same size pieces. The close pairing doesn’t bother the viewing because the space in between each piece is uniform. Hard to hang, but worth the effort!Hanging Your Booth 4
  • When hanging art pieces with similar framing make sure to give them a good amount of space. Can you imagine if another 4 pieces were on this wall? The heavy, dark frames would blend together and make it difficult to separate the pieces.Hanging Your Booth 5
  • When displaying a piece of greater value, place it on a prominent wall by itself.Hanging Your Booth

Have any tips of your own to share? Comments? Feedback? By all means, drop me a line, below…

9 Responses to “Hanging Art – Tips and Tricks”

  1. Lsmiths

    Really interesting post – these are some great tips and tricks for hanging art, especially at something as important as an art expo. I think another good way to make your art really stand out besides laying it out in an interesting format is to perhaps illuminate it with a several light boxes that can really draw attention and bring out the creative level of the artwork even more.

  2. P Patterson

    Why would you ever use backlit light boxes to show this type of art. It looks like Lsmiths is a vendor of these things and just wanted to post to let people know about his product.

  3. Claudette McDermott

    Lighting that has direct contact with the painting, to emphasize a point of interest in the painting, is what you want. I’m looking forward to my first Solo Exhibit here in March. S198 come check out my layout :) and work, of course ~ Poetry On Canvas/ Claudette McDermott

  4. Sima Amid Wewetzer

    Please let me know if I have permission to use nail on the wall for hanging. And do I provid the tools myself ? Is there any ladder there avilabe there to use or I need to bring one?

    Thank you Sima

  5. Samson Osanya Ojwan’g

    The post on hanging pictures is quit an eye opener to me. how about some tips on exhibiting 3D works?

  6. Samson Osanya Ojwan’g

    The post on hanging pictures is quite an eye opener to me. how about some tips on exhibiting 3D artworks?
    .

  7. m.cecilia garcia rodriguez

    thank you so very much for the information you send it for sure very helpfull for us all artist to acomplish a sale in many way. it is for me very hard to do a sale on my work therefore i would very much like to attend the exibit this year and GOD willing exibit the following year meaning 2012 still us a decorator i do very well when is needed still the tips are great have a wonderfull exibit to you all and my hope is to be there somehow.

  8. Nighat

    Very tempting. May just exhibit!

  9. Jasna

    - These photos made me cry. I looekd at them before reading the explanation and it was clear to me that they were farewell photos. I think these are some of the most emotionally powerful photos I’ve ever seen from you Jewel.

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