Favourite artists from The Cheaper Show

by Noah Bloom Posted in Art, Canada

This past Saturday was Vancouver’s The Cheaper Show, where the public was asked to come out to support ‘local’ artists, buy any of the 200 artists’ pieces onsite for precisely $200 each, and, well, be seen. While I have issues with arbitrarily pricing every piece at some mitigating level and the spectacle of selling art instead of being able to enjoy it, it was a very slickly run event, ultimately benefiting new, rising artists and new, curious art buyers.

Unfortunately, if you showed up after the doors were blown down by the first attendees, much of the highly sought work was already sold. Those red dots meant you were too late. And they really just indicated that the more established artists’ discounted work was the secret to such an event. Hell, if that were my work, I might have placed the red dots on my work before the event started. Most people notice the red dots moreso than their own perceived value of the art, and I was not the only person punching the names of memorable artists into my iPhone.

Still, it would appear that the brand of The Cheaper Show is beyond needing high profile artists anymore. So what’s next, more local events across the land for their respective cities’ new artists?

On that note, ironically, here were my favorite artists, all of them local to Vancouver — The Cheaper Show used to be only Vancouver artists, so I thought I’d stick to that. Check out all their linked sites. And support local art, because, well, Stephen Harper won’t.

In reverse alphabetical order:

Sara Araujo-Salas: