Many moons ago, just after I'd taken early retirement, I had the pleasure of exhibiting with the Society of Feline Artists at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery on The Cut, near to both the Old Vic and Waterloo Station in London. Unfortunately, although SOFA exhibited very happily there for 25 years, that gallery "shut up shop" a while back. Since then they've tried a number of alternative venues - and online exhibitions.
The Society of Feline Artists has been exhibiting paintings, drawings, sculpture and other feline-inspired artwork since our very first exhibition in 1995.This is about SOFA's new Winter Exhibition (17th October - 15th November) - which is not in a gallery, it's ONLINE.
AND It's a very different kind of review given it's very much focused on
- pros and cons of online exhibitions
- what you must do when selling art online
- the legal and regulatory compliance side of online exhibitions selling art
I'm seeing art societies do more and more online art exhibitions - with art for sale.
I do wonder if all those organising know all the questions they need to ask re what they need to do.
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| "Welcome to the SOFA Online Exhibition" on the website |
This post will comment on:
- viewing the SOFA exhibition
- Pros and Cons of Online Exhibitions
- savings for the art society!
- buying the art
- selling the art
- plus Trading, Ecommerce, Money Laundering, VAT and GDPR Regulations
My comments are largely focused on helping SOFA (or any other art societies aiming to sell via online exhibitions) to be more effective and completely legal.
Below is one of my artworks which was exhibited at SOFA many years ago! - of my cat Cosmo (who passed away 10 years ago + more drawings of him).
It now hangs opposite where I'm sat writing this.
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12" x 8", coloured pencils selected for SOFA Annual Exhibition 2008 at the Llewellyn Alexander Galleries copyright Katherine Tyrrell |
Artworks
Leonardo da Vinci famously sketched cats in various postures and movements across his notebooks, marveling at their anatomical balance, agility, and grace.The artwork in every SOFA Exhibition celebrates cats - and if you're a cat fan, you'll LOVE looking at the artwork on this website. Subject matter includes both domestic felines and wild / big cats and the art media and styles are various and diverse.
We are thrilled to showcase an incredible collection of feline-inspired artwork, celebrating cats of all shapes, sizes, and personalities. From bold digital paintings to cozy traditional sketches
- There are 125 artworks in the show. That's about a third of the number exhibited by the bigger national art societies at the Mall Galleries. It's enough to need a large space - but maybe not enough to make the budgeting easy.
- The artwork is by more than 50 artists, who work in a variety of media, from oils and watercolour to pencil and printmaking.
The SOFA Winter Exhibition
"The smallest feline is a masterpiece."Leonardo da Vinci (spotted on Denise Laurent's website!)
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| Artwork by three longstanding SOFA members |
Some comments on the actual Winter Exhibition
- The (home) splash page about the exhibition is attractive - but suggests it's in a physical gallery - which seemed odd, given the exhibition is online.
- I recognise a few of the names of the professional feline artists who are SOFA members and who were exhibiting when I used to exhibit (eg Jacqueline A. Gaylard, Sara Butt, Denise Laurent) As ever their work is very impressive.
- However, there are a lot of new names which I did not recognise - and some of their art looked very good.
- The website has a Gallery for its member artists where you can check out the background behind the names - and see more of their artwork. However there are 16 artists (so presumably only SOFA members). Just click the link in the names and you go to another page dedicated to that particular member artist and see a display of their artwork
- I was very surprised to see that selling art does not appear to be a priority in terms of
- how it is introduced on the Winter Exhibition Page and
- where all the relevant information re trading is displayed.
- I think there's an urgent need for an Introduction upfront eg a "How to Buy and How it works" page.
Which is when I started to look at compliance with all relevant regulations....
Online Exhibition
SOFA has done three online exhibitions - in either Winter or Spring - prior to this one.
The pros and cons of Online Exhibitions are as follows
ONLINE Pros
LOGISTICS AND COSTS
- No need to book a gallery months/years in advance
- No need to pay a gallery (which can be VERY expensive)
- No need to develop a hanging plan
- No need for a team of members who spend a very long day or most of a weekend hanging an exhibition
- No need to recruit or fund a team of people to sell the art and do the paperwork and arrange the despatch of the art to the buyer
- No need to spend a lot of time taking the exhibition down and getting it back home again.
ACCESS
- Access is every day the exhibition is open - for 24 hours a day
- Access is also international. Which means International Buyers can purchase art as well as UK people
- No time and costs involved for potential buyers in getting to the exhibition - which might mean more money for buying art!
SALES
- Art collectors and casual buyers are now a lot more used to buying items online - and LOTS of art has now been sold online for about two decades;
- Artists can sell artwork which is mounted and NOT framed if they so wish - making shipping easier and allowing the buyer to choose the perfect frame to go with their decor;
- Artists can choose to only sell within the UK - hence avoiding all the complexities of international shipping and the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (of which more in a future blog post). It was interesting to see how many were choosing to limit sales to the UK only!
- Each artwork provides
- details about the artwork
- whether it is mounted or framed
- how shipping works
- who can buy the art
- Using an appropriate filter, you can easily see which artwork has sold and which is still available
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| SOFA - Sold Artwork |
ONLINE Cons
VIEWING
Digital versus "in person" viewing
- Very many collectors prefer to see art in person. Seeing it online means some people struggle to imagine it at its real size - even with the dimensions given.
- Some people cannot visualise an artwork in their home. On many artists website, they use an app which provides a picture of the size of the artwork relative to common furniture in a room - but this is missing from this website.
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| The Google AI Take on whether room settings help to sell art |
SALES
Although SOFA is using a reputable website (Shopify) for their online exhibition website, I started to become a bit concerned about content....- How to buy (General): I struggled to find a simple and succinct explanation of what I needed to do if I wanted to buy an artwork - before I started looking at the artwork. That needs to be on the page where the exhibition starts.
- How to buy ( per artwork): The information about how to buy is on the page for the artwork - at the bottom.
- Thing is
- I'm being asked to add to cart before being told about the regulatory aspects which keep me safe
- the "Add to Cart" links on the artwork page did not always work for me. (I tried a few - and then cleared my cache, at which point they worked better)
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| Example of a SOFA Narrative about an artwork |
- The website uses Shopify. The website has a Gallery Terms and Conditions page (in T&Cs at the bottom of the menu listing - and divorced from the separate page which contains the exhibition). The T&Cs Page makes it clear that
- SOFA is acting as an agent on behalf of the artist.
- The two parties to the sale are artist and buyer.
S.O.F.A. brings together participating artists and buyers. When you buy an Artwork through the gallery, the contract of sale is between you and the Artist selling the work. S.O.F.A. processes the order and payment and provides customer service on the Artist’s behalf.
Artists ship directly from their own studios, which may be in the UK or overseas.
- My concern lies in the fact I'm not sure that SOFA or the participating artists have ALL paid attention to ALL the relevant regulations for art sales online.
- Links below are to my Art Business and Info for Artists website relating to
- Trading Law and Regulations - with particular reference to the business information all sellers are required to provide to all consumers
- E-commerce for Artists - which covers the sale of goods, services or digital content where there is no face-to-face contact with consumers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for Artists and Art Organisations - in relation to data collected and data protection and privacy for consumers
- VAT for Artists - which may well apply to both artists acting as sellers and to art societies as agents - depending on country of residence etc.
- Anti Money Laundering (AML): Law, Regulations and Practice or how to avoid being used as a channel for money laundering
Trading Laws, Regulations and Standards typically apply to:
- what you sell and how you describe it
- where you sell
- how you sell re. contracts & pricing
- keeping customers safe
- business information consumers need
- The SOFA website provides links to details IN THE FOOTER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WEBSITE. All of these really need to also be on an upfront and very clear "how to buy art on this site"
- Shipping
- Returns & Refunds
- T&C's For Buyers
- however there is no business address for SOFA - and it needs one.
Note: My "Go To" for checking out legalities re any aspect of selling in a gallery or online is the Royal Academy of Art's Summer Exhibition Terms and Conditions.
- It's always worth checking out.
- This is an organisation which has the money to pay expert lawyers to
- check out what they are doing and
- caution about what they should/must do to comply with all relevant regulations.
- I spotted the "VAT Registration requirement for all International Artists selling in the UK" - and told the Mall Galleries about it - which then resulted in changes on their website - and numerous others susbsequently!
PRICING
The key to sales with no problems is
1) great art and
2) realistic pricing for your marketplace - and
3) complete compliance with all relevant law and regulations.
- Some of the prices for paintings were wholly unrealistic. I'd be interested to know whether the artist, in these instances, has ever sold feline art at that price before. (Note: Others pricing in excess of £1K I know are established feline artists and good sellers and I'm not querying their prices!)
- If the prices get sillier, or an individual buys a number of higher priced artworks, then the Society starts moving in to the range of Anti Money Laundering (AML): Law, Regulations and Practice. Always best to know about what to avoid!!
- TIP A Society perspective on pricing could be offered to those who have not exhibited before or who appear to be unfamiliar with pricing levels for this type of art. Societies are frequently loath to challenge artists - but if done from an educational perspective, I think it's advice which is very well worth having. Plus only really successful feline artists with lots of sales are in a position to provide this advice. Advice can be offered as part of any Call for Entries.
- VAT: I note no VAT is being charged on a sale. Information for artists and buyers needs to be
- clearer about VAT eg when and if VAT is charged and
- whether or not this is applicable to this artist and this sale
- see VAT for Artists
ARTISTS' WEBSITES
BOTH the SOFA website and ALL the artists' websites MUST be completely compliant with all the relevant regulations relating to Trading Law, E-commerce, Data Protection, VAT and Anti Money Laundering (not optional when selling art and collecting data and money)
i.e. the artist is the seller and SOFA is the agent
- SOFA gets round this in part by providing the business address for 16 artists via its Seller Information Page (ie there are not 50 addresses for all the artists selling in the Winter Exhibition - in part because SOFA acts as the agent -
- however I could not find an address for SOFA - and it needs one!
- This Artist Listing would benefit from
- being alphabetical
- having working links - I found the "contact the gallery" link did not work for me.
- including website addresses (eg for member artists who have been checked re compliance with regulations)
- plus an explanation of what the Artist is legally responsible for.
- I checked a few of the artists' websites at random - and I'm afraid to say...
- Specifically, there was one artist where I didn't even know what country the artist was located in, let alone what was her specific business address - which is a REQUIRED DATA item if selling online (which she was)
- Others have no Terms of Business - which again is essential if the contract is between the Artist and the Buyer, rather than the Society and the Buyer
- There is frequently no guidance on any applicable taxes or tariffs or custom duties payable by the buyer - depending on their location.
- There is frequently no acknowledgement of GDPR or statement about how personal data is handled.
End Note
So, a rather different review from normal.
However, if you go online with exhibitions, I will look at HOW you sell as well as WHAT you sell.
I'm sure this is not an easy read for SOFA. Hopefully it will provide a "to do" list of things they need to address prior to the next online exhibition.
It's not been an easy write for me either. I've discovered that I need to go back and review some of the aspects of my Art Business Info website which my research for this post suggested may be out of date - particularly re VAT.
It's not been an easy write for me either. I've discovered that I need to go back and review some of the aspects of my Art Business Info website which my research for this post suggested may be out of date - particularly re VAT.
Hence why I've got a disclaimer on every page of my website
PLEASE NOTE:
1) Content and the law change all the time. It's impossible to keep up with it if you're not working on the topic full time.
2) I research topics carefully. However, I am totally unable to warrant that ANY and/or ALL information is3) Hence all information I provide comes without any LIABILITY whatsoever to you for any choices you make.
- complete and/or
- professional and/or
- up to date and/or
- wholly accurate and/or
- all links lead to the most current information (at the time of writing)
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