Blue Girl Reading (an iPad) by August Macke and George Miller
What art blogs do you go to for news, tips, and resources? This one, of course. (You can subscribe to our weekly email here.)
But, as the Cubists taught us, there’s always room for more than one perspective. Here are 20 of our other favorite art blogs, split into five categories:
The art world
The arts in DC
Creativity and inspiration
Running your art business
Art lessons & tutorials
Happy reading!
These art blogs will get you up to speed on what’s happening now with reviews of exhibits, news about art-world controversies, and interviews. For similar blogs with a more local perspective, see the next category.
- Hyperallergic
Read this: From Farty Red to Le Cute White, an Algorithm Generates Absurd Color Names
The go-to site for news, reviews, essays, and more about the global art world. Hyperallergic is based in Brooklyn, but the thoughtful news, reviews, and other articles come from contributors nationally and internationally. With many posts daily, it’s hard to encapsulate the breadth of coverage here, but there’s always something to read.
- artnet news
Read this: “Art Fair Economics”
Where Hyperallergic is keenly focused on the ideas, politics, and power dynamics of art, artnet is the place to go for news about the art market: auctions, fairs, and the like. This blog aims to be a resource for anyone who wants to keep on top of the international art market.
- The Aperture Blog (home page →)
Read this: “Myles Loftin Wants to Change the Conversation About Black Youth”
Aperture publishes a print magazine, but their blog also features web-only content — all about photography, just like the magazine. You’ll find plenty of reviews, essays, and interviews about mostly contemporary photographers. (For more tutorial- and gear-focused photography blogs, see below.)
Blogs about the arts in DC
Washington, DC is full of culture, and it’s not all at museums (though three museum blogs are featured here). Don’t miss what’s happening in your backyard!
- East City Art
Read this: Reflections on Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors
East City Art is your best bet for reviews, features, and news about events and exhibits around DC. This blog is premised on the idea that there’s more to DC art than what you can find on the Mall and in NW.
It can be tough to keep up with all the gallery openings, but they manage to do it! East City Art also puts on the Emulsion show and annually publishes a print magazine quarterly.
- Broad Strokes
Read this: “Go Figure! Amy Sherald at NMWA”
Like all good museum blogs, the blog for National Museum of Women in the Arts features a mix of content: not just what’s in their collection, but what’s going on with women artists all over the world. (You may know this blog, and the museum, as the genesis of the #5WomenArtists project.) Check out their Art Fix Friday posts for links to the week’s most interesting articles and exhibits to see.
- Eye Level
Read this: “Five Questions with Stephanie Williams and Matt Cohen”
Eye Level is the official blog for the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery, which means it has tons of great material to work with. We love museums’ behind-the-scenes posts, and you’ll find them here. As a DC institution, this blog includes local posts as well as posts about American art in general.
- Experiment Station
Read this: “What is a Dithyramb?”
The Phillips Collection’s blog has lots of contributors who post about exhibits, conservation, installation, events, music, and everything else going on at Phillips. It’s also illustrated by Elizabeth Graeber. Because different posts are written by different people, you’ll get lots of perspectives: how visitors react to artwork, what staff members saw on their vacation, and so forth.
- Daily Campello Art News
Read this: “Guerrilla Framing Techniques”
Local artist and writer Lenny Campello has posted here since 2003, making it one of the oldest art blogs on this list. He posts news about the local arts scene, including criticism, events, exhibit opportunities for artists, links to news stories, scam alerts, and photos of his works in progress.
Creativity and inspiration art blogs
These art blogs spotlight individual artists’ work, not necessarily in exhibits but presented as ain’t-it-cool inspiration, ripe for sharing.
- The Jealous Curator
Read this: “Laura Hendricks”
Danielle Krysa, a.k.a. the Jealous Curator, shares images of amazing contemporary artists. If you’re featured on The Jealous Curator, you’ll know you’ve made it! This blog is heavy on images, light on text, which is just fine with us.
Krysa also hosts a podcast, Art for Your Ear, which we featured in our podcasts post.
- BOOOOOOOM
Read this: “Tiny Landscapes Painted in Mint Tins”
That’s Booooooom, with seven o’s. Here, you can find all kinds of artist spotlights and features, with the occasional bit of news thrown in.
- Hi-Fructose
Read this: “Ori Toor’s ‘Gibberish’ Drawings Rely on Happy Accidents”
This quarterly contemporary art magazine also publishes articles in a blog. Like the other blogs in this category, it’s one to bookmark just to see what kinds of projects other artists are working on.
- Creators
Read this: “This Surreal Music Video Is Built Entirely From Paintings”
This Vice project doesn’t focus only on visual art, but there’s plenty of that to be found. They also publish some news articles (after all, it is a news organization).
Blogs about running your art business
For working artists, navigating galleries and websites and art fairs presents a variety of pitfalls. These art blogs are here to guide you. (For similar articles, see this blog’s Artful Resources section, with articles about things like creating a website or pricing your artwork.)
- Art Biz Blog
Read this: “Do This Today to be Happy One Year From Now”
Alyson Stanfield’s long-running blog is full of great advice, both for motivating yourself in the studio, and marketing your artwork. The author is a curator, educator, and collector who has been coaching artists with career advice since 2002. She also publishes a podcast.
- Arts Marketing Blog
Read this: “The Heart of Your Personal Brand as an Artist? Specificity.”
This blog is from the National Arts Marketing Project at Americans for the Arts. You’ll find it most useful if you work for an arts organization, but it’s also useful for artists working on their own website, email, and similar marketing projects. See the post linked above for tips on your artist brand, for example.
- The Abundant Artist
Read this: “How to Write Grants for Your Art Project”
With the motto “dispelling the starving artist myth,” Cory Huff’s website has lots of articles, videos, and other resources on Internet marketing for artists — both how-to’s and best practices. What to do with your email list? What to blog about? How to start your Facebook fan page? The answers are here. Look for plenty of helpful guest blog posts with real-world examples, too.
Art lessons & tutorials
These art blogs are for artists who are still learning — in other words, all of us. Motivational, reflective, and instructional, they feature articles with specific tutorials or exercises.
- EmptyEasel
Read this: “How to Build Your Own Pochade Box For Painting Outdoors”
This blog could go in either this category or the one above: EmptyEasel provides tutorials on both making your art and selling it. This one is worth a deep dive into the archive.
- The Painter’s Keys
Read this: “Salon des refusés”
“Dear artist …”
That’s how Canadian painter Robert Genn begins each of his twice-weekly “letters” to artists. In the comments, you’ll find lively discussions among his substantial following, making this as much a community as a blog. There’s lots more to see here, too, including calendars, links, and a huge collection of art quotes.
- Artist Daily
Read this: “8 Beginner Painting Mistakes and How to Conquer Them”
This is actually one of five blogs published by Artist Daily, with others focused on specific topics including painting and drawing. These tutorials focus on traditional, representational drawing and painting techniques (which are helpful to learn even if realism isn’t your end goal).
- Light Stalking
Read this: “How to Develop the Portrait Photographer’s Mindset”
Tutorials for beginning to experienced photographers are the forte of Light Stalking. As the post linked above notes, there’s always something new to learn.
https://www.theartleague.org/blog/2017/06/15/favorite-art-blogs/#education