For emerging artists, social media platforms are becoming a necessity for building their name and their following. Instagram is an especially valuable platform for sharing art, connecting with fans, and promotion.

There has never been so much opportunity for artists to reach their audience, especially for niche genres. However, there are a number of pitfalls and challenges that come along with using social media for self-promotion. We take a look at some of the pros and cons of social media for artists.

Pros

Democratization of Art

The democratization of art comes down to making art more accessible. This mindset is often tied back to the French Revolution, which resulted in a democratization of culture in France. This branched out into the idea of sharing art with the people.

It’s an important concept in the art world, turning art from a leisure of the elite to something embraced by the people. It helped to revolutionize art in new and interesting ways.

Today, social media is allowing for the democratization of art at a scale and speed we have never seen before.

Artists are not only able to better reach the people but they can more specifically connect to people interested in their specific niche. Through the use of hashtags, sharing, mentions, and collaborative work, artists can find like-minded audiences all around the world.

It’s not just the artists who benefit. Instagram gives regular people the opportunity to keep up with artists and view their latest work at the tip of their fingers. It’s easier than ever for people to appreciate, experience, and connect with art.

Widespread Distribution

The use of social media allows for widespread distribution without affecting or devaluing the art. Artists can share images of their art around the world without affecting the number of prints. That allows them to maximize promotion, even if selling limited edition art prints.

The artist is now able to share their art with anyone, anywhere in the world – all they need is an internet connection. This especially valuable for more niche genres, like erotic nude art.

There are a lot of people around the world looking for erotic art prints, but the communities are small in many places. That can limit their access and exposure to the art they’re looking for. Through social media, erotic artists can reach their niche audience more effectively.

Grow & Connect With Fanbase

One of the great aspects of artists using social media is that it’s a two-way conversation. Artists have a direct line of conversation with their audience. They get the opportunity to find out what resonates with people, what they want more of, and what they’re hoping to see next.

Social Media can even help determine the best places for them to set up galleries by seeing where their audience is. Their audience can further help by sharing their posts, growing the artists’ reach and visibility.

Another popular audience growth technique artists are using on social media is cross-promotion. Through collaboration, sharing, or mentioning each others’ work, artists share exposure with each others’ fanbases.

Cons

Banning Accounts

For many creatives, especially erotic artists, social media can be tumultuous due to seemingly arbitrary rules. Instagram is especially notorious for this. Artist will sometimes receive a ban as a result of the content of their art.

The problem is, there’s no clear indication of what will cause a ban. Sometimes the platform deems nude art as perfectly fine, other times an artist receives a ban for art that is too suggestive (even without nudity). The rules guiding this are inconsistent, and artists are at the mercy of Instagram’s whims.

This is more than just a concern for censorship. When an artist receives a ban there is often no warning, and they can lose their entire following. While they can set up a new account, they have all the hard work of rebuilding their following. All with the possibility of losing it all again.

Competition

Another big challenge is that with social media being so accessible and providing so much opportunity is that there is a lot of competition. There’s a lot of noise out there, and the louder it gets, the harder it is to be heard.

On social media, artists aren’t just competing with other artists, they compete with every other account. They need to be found in a sea of memes, celebrities, CrossFit videos, heavily-filtered food pictures and so on.

Having good content and regular posting isn’t enough. Artists need to devise and pursue follower strategies to grow their account. There are loads of strategies ranging from buying followers to bots that schedule mass following and commenting strategies. Artists have to test out different techniques to discover what works best for their specific audience.

Limited Distribution Options

When artists share their art through an online art gallery they can offer better distribution options. The gallery can offer superior print quality, framing, shipping options, and service. Many artists on social media are left to their own devices.

This can mean they need to manage the printing, handling, shipping, and fulfillment themselves. A time-consuming process many artists find tedious and unfulfilling. Their alternative is often using web services that fulfill the printing and shipping for them. Unfortunately, many of these services result in lower profits for the artists and a lower quality product.

Many social media platforms limit what the artist can share. While Instagram allows video and images alike, it only allows a couple of display formats for images. This may not align with the shape and style the artist would prefer their art shown as. Artists need to work within the parameters of the platform. They can also only leave one link that sits on their profile. So fans can’t buy individual art pieces by clicking on the image.

Follow Art Provocateur Gallery On Instagram

While there are some challenges in using social media platforms like Instagram, it’s hard to deny the overwhelmingly positive impact they’ve had on the art community. The juice is worth the squeeze for any artist looking to grow their audience or connect with their fanbase.

You can follow us on Instagram @art.provocateur for our erotic art gallery’s latest prints, photos, sculptures, and paintings. Artists looking to sell art online can submit for an assessment to see if your work is the right fit for our gallery.

Where to Find Erotic Art

Today, there is no shortage of ways to discover art. Galleries, shows, and social media provide easy access for long time collectors or first-time buyers. Erotic art, however, has remained more elusive. Art Provocateur Gallery is the premier online gallery for erotic art.

Erotic and nude art have some similar attributes, but they are ultimately two different genres. In this piece, we take a look at how to recognize the difference between them. As an erotic art gallery, we often see confusion between these two artistic genres. This piece will help to see how they differ.

Defining Nude Art

Nude art is any fine artwork that depicts the naked human body as its primary subject. It has been a longstanding genre across many forms of media throughout the ages. From the nude statues of the Ancient Greeks, to Renaissance painters like Sandro Botticelli, to modern nude photographers like Ben Ernst.

The human form has been a central theme in art since inception, and nudity the most honest depiction and expression of it.

Defining Erotic Art

Erotic art is fine artwork that is intended to arouse the viewer, and/or depicts sexual activity. Both erotic themes and artistic merit define this genre. Erotic art could be appreciated as fine art even void of arousal. This separates it from pornography or obscenity.

Although erotic and nude art is generally separate genres, there are similarities between the two. These grey areas are largely responsible for common misidentification between the genres.

The Grey Areas

In the public eye, these two genres are too often seen as one and the same. One of the big causes of this is the use of nudity itself. But, nudity alone does not constitute erotica. Erotic nude art is a popular subgenre that may further the confusion, as it falls directly into both categories.

All nude art depicts nudity. Erotic art depicts eroticism, with or without nudity. Just because artwork shows the naked body, does not automatically qualify it as erotic art.

There are many themes and fetishes in erotic art that do not involve nudity. Fetish apparel, for instance, ascribes sexuality to wearing certain clothes. Pin-up photography is a popular category of erotica that, more often than not, does not contain nudity. Artists frequently depict eroticism without nudity.

Other categories of erotic art, such as bondage photography, contain nudity although it is not the primary erotic driver. Instead, that comes from factors like the exchange of power, intimacy, and mastery of the skill.

Another factor that frequently draws a parallel between the two genres is censorship. Both erotic and nude art have fallen victim to censorship. In theory, censorship is intended to protect the public from offensive or harmful material. Instead, it too often sees use as a means of suppressing artistic creation.

Neither nudity nor erotica necessarily falls under the vein of “offensive” or “harmful” so long as they constitute fine art. The arguments for and against the censorship of both genres are similar enough that they are easily painted with the same brush.

Key Differences Between Erotic & Nude Art

The two key differences between erotic and nude art are the intent and the effect. Although both genres are fine art, they serve separate purposes.

Erotic art has the specific intention of causing arousal in the viewer. The intent is how many artists categorize the piece as belonging to one genre or the other. Nude art is not made with this intention, even though it can cause arousal in viewers. The difference is whether eroticism is clearly the purpose.

For example, consider a popular bit among comedians discussing the Sears catalog. They tell stories of being aroused by Sears models during their youth, tearing out pages, or hoarding catalogs. Of course, the intention of the Sears catalog was not to evoke arousal. So even though arousal may have occurred to a minority of viewers, it did not constitute erotic art.

Having said that, the effect can determine a piece like an erotic nude, rather than a nude. Regardless of the artist’s intent, if the majority of viewers find the piece evokes erotic arousal, it may fall under the category of erotica. The difference between this and the Sears example is that the people perceiving the art as erotic in the example are outliers rather than a general consensus.

The effect can work the opposite way as well. For example, an erotic photographer may have prints of a nude model intended for viewers with a foot fetish. For those without a foot fetish, they can appreciate the artistic value of the piece, but the erotic appeal may be lost on them. Outside of this particular fetish community, this piece may be deemed nude art rather than erotic.

Does Individual Perception Matter?

From a broad categorization sense, the difference between nudity and erotica isn’t based on the individual viewer. But, from a more personal standpoint, individual perception matters more. The owner of erotic artwork may choose to purchase and/or display an art print because of their personal connection with it.

When buying art, the most important aspect is finding a piece that appeals to your tastes, sensibilities, and desires. For more tips for buyers view our Guide to Shopping for Limited Edition Art. Or, browse our gallery of nude and erotic art from both established and up-and-coming artists.

Art Provocateur is the premier online gallery of erotic art prints.  Browse our galleries of limited edition and one-of-a-kind artwork. We have the largest selection of erotic and nude art from both established artists and rising stars.