Curation: a personal experience

Having recently been appointed curator for the SGFA, the drawing society, I thought my fellow artists and collectors might be interested to take a glimpse behind the scenes and understand a little more about how an exhibition comes together and what motivates the curators’ decisions from my personal experience. I’ve also included some top tips and advice to help artists when submitting and delivering artwork for open and society exhibitions.

In my opinion the curation of an exhibition should focus on the visitor experience and show the collective work at its very best, bearing in mind the themes, scale, and space. The works need to communicate with each other in harmony.

 The curator will have a vision of the space as a whole and will usually have planned it all in advance, well ahead of the hang.

The curator always has the final say on what and how the artwork is displayed.

For a successful hang, a mixture of large, medium, and small works is often a good thing, as it adds variety and a good change of scale, making the display more interesting to the viewer. Additionally, this also offers buyers options to suit their budget.

A few large “showstopper” pieces help create impact, to draw people across the room and to help entice visitors into the exhibition, leading them in to see all the other smaller works. They also help to break up big groupings, to help stop it all looking monotonous, breaking up the line.

They really help to create focal points.

To mitigate colour clash, generous space interspersed with strong black and white pictures acts as a balance.

Curators and galleries like themed exhibitions, as this assumes the work will hang well together. With the bigger national shows however, you can expect a more eclectic mix, which can be more challenging to ensure the pictures harmonize and the display looks balanced.  

For the SGFA show I personally like to break the work up into themed categories, with the work in each section having common themes. This makes it easier to curate, and for the visitor the added benefit of being more easily able to find the specific types of work that they are looking for.

From my experience, work should also not be hung too high or too low, as this is very difficult for the viewer to see properly, as they cannot get close to it.

Selecting too many pictures for a space can mean some artwork will not get hung, and the curator usually reserves the right to not hang every picture, subject to space and curation.

To mitigate this issue, most professional societies set a limit in advance of selection based on the space, as they are often duty bound to hang all the selected pictures, assuming the artists comply with all the rules and the work is up to standard; professionally framed, white mounts as standard etc.

Big works need more space around them, which can result in artists working in larger scale being limited in the quantity of pictures they are permitted in a show, to make it fairer to the other artists with smaller works that take up less space.

For selected exhibitions, only works that have been selected through the process are permissible, substitute pieces cannot be accepted and hung, as these have not been through the selection process.

During the exhibition set up, no one other than the hanging team and the curator are allowed in the exhibition space, for both expedience and health and safety. The hanging team are under intense pressure to set up the exhibition to a tight deadline and to maintain the flow without distracting interruptions. Uninvited visitors at this time will usually be kindly escorted out of the building. 

Some top tips and advice for artists from my experience:

1. It is easier to hang the artwork by one artist together in a group if all the work by that artist is the same size, framed the same way and is consistent in style. This also usually motivates buyers to purchase more than one piece as they can happily hang them together.

2. Professional framing is critical for all parties; artist, hanging team and collector. It should be robust enough for D rings or mirror plates to be fitted to the back and survive carriage from show to the buyer’s home in good order. Cheap ready-made frames, clip frames and/or poor damaged framing not only lets the work down, it lets the exhibition as a whole down and reflects badly on all involved.

Also, a buyer will not want to pay good money for an excellent picture, if the framing is poor and cheap, and it is very unlikely to be hung in the exhibition.

3.  Neutral frames are usually preferred by both curators and buyers, rather than strong colour or gold frames, which can dominate a display and clash with adjacent artwork, spoiling the collective appearance.

4. White/off white mounts are preferred because the display of the collective will look more balanced as a set, and it helps to make them more coherent when seen together. The other reason is that small works are often hung in close groups and the white borders help to create space between the actual pictures. All mounts should be of a professional standard. Uneven edges around the window/aperture look shoddy and will likely result in the pictures not being hung.

5. Museum or glare resistant with UV protection glass is recommended, especially for dark pictures and works on paper, because they prevent glare on the artwork from light sources, whilst UV protection helps to prevent fading and discolouration, of not just the artwork but also the paper and conservation mount boards.

6. Don’t be late! Late work most likely won’t get hung because the display will already have been worked out and largely hung. Plus, it is highly disruptive to the flow of the picture hanging that is under way. To be as successful as possible, in my experience it is best to be professional in one’s approach, and to ensure that all artwork is delivered by the allotted time in the best possible condition. Lateness is not only disrespectful to the organisers and the hanging team, but also not fair on all the other artists that have made the effort to get their work delivered in time. 

7. Picture labelling is essential, for cataloguing, for locating the work and for the hanging team to put the correct wall label adjacent to it. If prices are required as part of the labelling, ensure that the correct one is on it.  

8.    Read and follow all the written instructions from the gallery or event organisers.

Images from SGFA Centenary Exhibition Unlocked; Courtesy of Felicity Flutter and Barry Devereux.