3 Questions to Ask Before Buying a Piece of Art
Buying art for the first time — or the tenth time — can feel surprisingly hard to get right. You fall for something in a gallery, bring it home, and it never looks the way it did on the wall. Or you spend months scrolling online — Artsy, Instagram, gallery sites — and never pull the trigger on anything.
After 15 years working in the contemporary art world as a gallery director, art advisor, and curator in San Diego, I've watched a lot of people struggle with knowing when something is the right piece for them. These are the questions I come back to with clients and art enthusiasts alike.
01. Do I love this enough to live with it?
The best art pulls you in before you can explain why. That gut feeling — the one that makes you stop in front of a piece and not want to walk away — is worth trusting. Art should be part of your story, not just a trending moment. The pieces that hold up are the ones tied to where you were in your life when you found them, what you needed to see on the wall every day.
If you feel it, trust it.
02. Does it fit the rhythm and scale of my space?
Artist: Bernadette Jiyong Frank Design/Image Credit: Thomas Phesant
Scale is the most commonly underestimated factor in buying art. A piece that commands a wall in a gallery can disappear at home, and something that seemed modest can overwhelm a room. Before you buy anything, know your wall dimensions. Know your ceiling height. Know whether your space reads light or dark, busy or spare.
Beyond size: think about what the work is doing in the room. Is it a focal point or part of a larger arrangement? Is it competing with your furniture and architecture or working with them? Art doesn't exist in isolation — it exists in relationship to everything around it.
03. Does this work speak to me beyond the surface?
Collecting art is just that — collecting. Over time, the pieces you bring home should tell a story, whether that's a story about you, about an artist whose work you've followed, about a place you've been or a season of your life. Sometimes it's something deeper — a thought or feeling you can't quite articulate but recognize when you see it.
And sometimes you just love how it makes you feel in the room. That's enough too.
The pieces that hold up have something in them worth returning to. You just need to notice whether a piece makes you want to know more — or whether you've already exhausted it after two minutes.
There's no formula for finding the right piece of art. But there is a practice — slowing down, asking better questions, and trusting what you actually respond to rather than what seems like the right choice.
If you're navigating that process and want a second set of eyes, that's exactly what I do. I work with collectors and homeowners in San Diego and beyond to find original artwork that feels right — for the space, the budget, and the life being lived in it.