I recently watched a TED talk that reinforced my opinion of the importance of limiting the amount of art you try to display when you are trying to generate sales.
I have long maintained that it's a bad idea to try and show too much art at once. Whether the art is being shown in a gallery or at a weekend art festival, I believe it's better to show a limited number of pieces instead of trying to cram everything you can into your space.
I believe that having too much art in one space hurts you in several ways. First, it makes your display look crowded and unprofessional. Most art needs some space to breathe. Your display will look better if each piece has its own visual space.
Many galleries and artists feel like they are more likely to make a sale if they offer a wide range of work. This is a kind of shotgun approach. The more you show, the thinking goes, the more likely you are to have something that will appeal. I would argue that the problem with this approach is that you may have a better chance at having the right piece in front of someone if there's a wide range of work, but the problem is the person won't be able to properly see the art.
Another critical problem with this approach is that offering people too many choices often makes it impossible for them to make a decision. The TED talk I watched gave me some scientific backing to this opinion. Sheena Iyengar, a prominent psycho-economist (whatever that is!?) has done research that shows that when customers are faced with too many options, they freeze up. It's well worth watching her talk at TED and thinking about how it applies to the art business. Iyengar's insights about "choice overload" show that when people are confronted with too many options, they choose not to choose.
You will see in the video below that having a broad range of choice can attract visitors, but it discourages buyers. Think about that for a minute. Have you ever been at a show where you had great attendance but didn't make the sales you would have expected?
