How to price your artwork on The Exhibit

For users on the Free and Exhibitor Pro plans only.

Before we walk you through how to price your artwork on The Exhibit, you may also want to check out our Beginner’s Guide to Pricing Artwork which we have compiled for first-time exhibitors. Our Beginner’s Guide outlines the step by step process to pricing artwork, starting with working out how much your artwork has cost you to make, through to how to set a competitive market price for your work.

This post however walks you through some additional questions we get and things to consider once you have your artwork prices in mind.

1. Do I include applicable Sales Taxes in my prices?

We advise all exhibitors to price artworks exclusive of any sales tax (VAT, GST etc.). This means you don’t need to price it in.

This is because The Exhibit platform makes it easy for you by automatically calculating sales tax (where applicable) when a buyer purchases your artwork. The buyer will pay the applicable sales tax amount on top of the price you set for your artwork – for example, if your artwork is $500 and you are required to charge 10% sales tax to a buyer in your region, the buyer will be charged $550 when the transaction is processed.

If you are legally required to charge sales tax:

If you are legally required to charge sales tax on your artwork sales, you need to disclose this during your initial Exhibitor Profile set-up (that is when you first curate an exhibition or are included in an exhibition). This will allow The Exhibit platform to calculate the right tax amount on your behalf when the buyer is in the same location as you and/or when sales tax applies. You can edit your tax status at a later date in your Account Settings.

We will pass on any sales tax collected on your artwork sales back to you as part of your pay-out deposit, so you can then pay it to the relevant tax authority in your jurisdiction when you are required to do so.

If you are not required to charge sales tax:

If you are not legally required to charge sales tax, for example, if you are not registered as a sole-trader or business entity or company, you don’t need to disclose anything during your Exhibitor Profile set-up and therefore sales tax will not be auto-calculated on your artwork sales.

If you change your tax status at a later date you can edit this in your Account Settings, but please note if you need to start charging sales tax it is your responsibility to update your account settings on The Exhibit as soon as possible to reflect this change. If you sell artwork before we are informed of this change you are responsible for calculating and paying any applicable taxes for those sold artworks.

2. What about Import Taxes and Duties?

While overseas buyers of your artwork may be required to pay import taxes, duties or other fees when your artwork arrives at the destination country, you are not expected to know what these costs might be or to include them in your price. These are the buyer’s costs and they will be informed of this when they purchase your artwork.

3. Do I include shipping costs in my artwork price?

No, you shouldn’t include shipping costs in your artwork prices. Instead, you outline your shipping costs separately for each artwork during your exhibition setup. When one of your artworks is purchased, the relevant shipping cost is added on top of the artwork price in the buyer’s shopping cart.

For more information about how to define shipping costs on The Exhibit, please read this article here.

4. What currency do I price my Artwork in?

When you add an artwork to your exhibition, you will be able to add the price in your local currency. However, you will notice that we have provided you with a calculator tool which automatically shows you a New Zealand Dollars (NZD) equivalent price based on the current live exchange rate. The NZD price is the price saved to your exhibition.

This is because our platform’s “master” currency is NZD. NZD has been chosen for this purpose because we are a NZ registered company and can only transact artwork sales on the platform in NZD. Find out more about why here.

However, when your artwork sells, your payout deposit will be in your own local currency. For more information on payouts please see our article on How payouts work when an artwork sells.

5. What currency will exhibition visitors see my Artwork in?

When visitors browse your exhibition on The Exhibit, they will see your artwork prices in a currency most relevant to them.

Currently, we only support three currencies but we will be adding more currencies over time. Visitors from Australia will see prices in AUD, visitors in New Zealand will see prices in NZD, and visitors in all other countries will see prices in USD.

6. How do I price my artwork if a Curator or Gallery is including my artwork in their exhibition?

If your artworks are included in an exhibition being curated by another Curator or Gallery, you will want to make sure that both yourself as the Artist and the Curator/Gallery are fairly remunerated for each artwork when it sells.

For Revenue Share exhibitions on The Exhibit, we have set parameters to ensure Curators can always cover any costs associated with exhibiting and the Artist is always guaranteed at least half of the sale. The Curator’s share must be between 20-50% of the artwork price, and the Artist’s share must be between 50-80% of the displayed artwork sales price. For example, if the Curator’s commission is 30%, the Artist’s share in this scenario would be 70% of the displayed artwork sale price. You can find out more about revenue share exhibitions here.

7. How do I price Artwork in a Group Exhibition?

If you have been included as an Artist in a Group Show on The Exhibit (an exhibition with 3 or more different artists) it is always good practice to make sure your pricing is in the same ballpark as the other artworks in the exhibition, unless your work is much larger or obviously more complex.

Or if you are the Curator of a Group Show on The Exhibit, it’s worth ensuring the pricing across your exhibition is fairly consistent and no one has obviously under-valued or over-valued their artwork/s.

8. Does every artwork in my exhibition need a price?

No, only the works you want to make available ‘For Sale’ or ‘On Enquiry’ need to display a price.

However, on the Free Plan, at least 50% of the artworks in your exhibition must be for sale.

For any artworks you wish to not make available for sale, you can mark them as ‘Not For Sale’ during the exhibition set-up process. Not For Sale artworks won’t display any price tag and are not available for visitors to purchase during your exhibition.

Find out more about including ‘For Sale’, ‘On Enquiry’ and ‘Not For Sale’ artworks in your exhibition here.