While many of us dream of hanging gallery-worthy art in our living rooms, high price tags often leave that goal out of reach for everyday buyers. The art market certainly works in strange and mysterious ways. After all, a banana duct-taped to a wall can sell for $6.2 million.
Luckily, InLiquid’s Art for the Cash Poor fair is back this weekend, celebrating 25 years of affordable artwork.
The art market, which pops up in South Kensington this Saturday, has a price cap of $250. Festivities start at noon and run until 6 p.m. inside the Crane Arts building on North American Street. Over 130 artists are participating.
Rachel Zimmerman, artist, founder and executive director of InLiquid, began the Cash Poor event as a way to make collecting art more approachable to locals in “a fun sort of irreverent way.” The goal was to foster in-person connections between artists and their community.
“The idea is really for people to wander, pick up something, learn about something,” she said. “Learn about us. Learn about the neighborhood.”
Philly has a lot of craft fairs, but Zimmerman’s goal was to distinguish this event so that artwork and not just craftwork was available. That has drawn people from a wide range of backgrounds and interests.
“It’s not just for people who are new to this,” she said. “We get some pretty serious collectors who come, too, because they realize that this is an opportunity to support a younger artist and learn about artists.”
The day includes family-friendly activities in addition to art, as well as craft activities provided by art organizations. Some of the artists participating are newer to the Philly scene, while others are seasoned vets.
“I have been working with InLiquid almost as long as there has been an Art for the Cash Poor,” said Chris Macan, a photographer and InLiquid member. “I think I probably first joined the event in the second year.”
Macan’s work revolves around the technical elements of a camera. While many photographers look at a space or scene and then decide how they would like to capture it, he opts for interesting or unique equipment and then tinkers around with what it can create.
“I am a process-driven photographer,” he explained. “I’ve got a body of work right now that came about because I was really interested in a panoramic pinhole camera and how it might record people or places.”
Macan loves experimenting. He has created work using long exposure times, and has taken advantage of the full range that a lens can capture, so his images turn out circular rather than on a cropped square. He is best known for his work with infrared light, which allows him to capture landscapes in an almost ethereal way.
This year, the photographer is planning to bring around 50 pieces to the Art for the Cash Poor Event, ranging from $90 to $250. His photos come in his own custom frames.
“I do the frames for almost all of my own work,” he said.
Zimmermann hopes that attendees of the Art for the Cash Poor Event will go into the event thinking of themselves as collectors, whether they have art experience or not. Each piece they buy, even if the price is low, is an investment in a local creative.
Another one of those creatives is Jean Broden, an artist and Inliquid member.
“It’s one of my favorite shows,” Broden said. “I would rather have my art in the hands of a lot of people who enjoy my art, than put some kind of incredibly high price on my art so that somehow this select group of people, who have a lot of money, could purchase some of my art.”
Broden will have work on display ranging from $15 to $250. She creates contemporary realist oil paintings that depict public spaces in Philadelphia. She paints street scenes with the hope to connect a viewer to not just a place, but also to a specific time. Historic buildings and spaces that can get overlooked often inspire her. To make her art more affordable, she will recreate some of her works as smaller prints so anyone can take them home.
Frequently, people at events share memories with her about a space that she has depicted.
“The stories are crazy,” she said. Some people tell Broden about a first date they’ve had, or a space where they once worked. In one instance, a man even said that one of her pieces depicted a corner where he was mugged and robbed.
“He bought the painting!” she said. “He came back and said, ‘You know what, I have to have it.’ “
Her favorite part of the show is chatting with everyone who comes.
“When I’m at a show, I spend half the time at the show with people who are telling me their personal histories connected to buildings that they’re looking at,” Broden said. “And I just love that aspect of it.”
Macan echoed the sentiment.
“I love talking with people,” he said. “Even if I don’t sell for a couple hours, if I’m sitting there and people are interested in how something was created, or why I did something, or just the work in general. That’s what’s fun for me.”
Zimmerman hopes that the 25th Art for the Cash Poor Event will give Philadelphians a chance to bring something home they can truly value.
“We put art in our spaces,” she said. “It’s how we define who we are and what we’re interested in.”
And that worth goes far beyond the price tag.
“I think we need to be reminded that we can have things that are not always necessities like food and shelter, but that having things that we care about, we value, we like to look at, is equally important. Supporting our arts community is critical right now, because Philadelphia is getting more and more expensive.”
Broden hopes that attendees understand that even if you buy a piece for $5, that’s still showing support.
“I think the arts in general are, I don’t want to say under attack … but they’re certainly being devalued,” she said. “I think it’s important for everyone, not just artists, but people who appreciate art, to come together and say, ‘Hey, this is something that matters and, and these are the reasons it’s important.’ ”
To her, it all comes back to the connections she’s making.
“When I talk about that interaction people have with the pieces and how it brings their history closer to them, that’s important stuff,” she said. “And it is something that deserves to be valued.”
