Make Yourself A Mini Exhibition
Print more, be a better curator, inspire yourself, and more...
When you hear the term exhibition a thousand thoughts run through your mind. The first thing that you may think of is where will this exhibition be? A gallery of some sort? Some public place that could be used as a gallery? That’s a big ask, isn't it? How am I going to get into a gallery, how am I going to approach some local public of any kind, why would they want me to show my pictures? Seems daunting, and it can be but I’d suggest you’re putting the cart before the horse. Obtaining some gallery space, or a lot of gallery space is the first thing a lot of people think of when the word exhibition is brought up.
If you use this as a starting point there’s a good chance you’ll never start. If you put a pin in that thought, you might go to the next step and start adding up all the costs associated with printing ten, or twenty, or thirty large fine art quality prints, then mounting them. This will take months and cost thousands. Another sure fired way to never start let alone finish your exhibition. Put all of that away for now, I have a better starting point for all of you, even if you’ve had exhibitions in public spaces and art galleries already. Make a mini-exhibition.
What is a mini exhibition?
I’ve suggested using your home as an exhibition space more than once. That’s what Les and I do. We have a lot of wall space that we curate and rotate large prints that hang on our walls, a lot of prints. Here’s the truth though; We do it far less frequently than we’d like to. Sure we have full control over those walls but practically speaking changing what’s hanging on those walls takes an immense amount of time, effort, and yes — money.
How about using a tiny bit of space that anyone, in any home or work area can curate and hang work in an hour for very little cost? Sounds great, too good to be true? No, it’s so simple you’ll probably dismiss a mini-exhibition immediately but bear with me. Here’s what to do:
Choose a theme, subject, or project you want to exhibit.
Pick a reasonable number of photo graphs that will be in the exhibition, say 9, 10, or 12, something along those lines. That’s plenty.
Find a wall with somewhere around 24in x 36in in total area, the space you’d need for one large print.
Make your prints, make them small, say 4in x 6in at the largest. Make them smaller if you want.
Stick those prints to the wall in any way you want. Be prudent in how they are arranged, their sequence, their juxtaposition, and the space you leave between them. If one or two don’t really fit or enhance your mini-exhibition remove them, replace them with alternatives… or not.
That’s it, that is a mini-exhibition. I’ve suggested that you make small prints and make a lot of them before. I make a ton of small print and typically make them on a Canon Selphy because it’s cheap, easy, and “accurate enough”. The cost rivals the cheapest you can make them with the Canon and that’s how I like to make them but you can order them on-line from Walmart, Costco, or your local drug store if you want.
I do not suggest this is a one-time activity. I suggest you make a mini-exhibition once a month, if you’re extremely prolific make one every week. If you have the space, curate more than one mini-exhibition at a time. I’d suggest you don’t put them in the same room if you want a couple of these displayed at the same time. Put them in a place just for you if that’s how you want to start but put them somewhere you’ll see your mini-exhibition every day. I would also you encourage you to eventually put it in a place others will see your pristine, well curated, well designed exhibition. Trust me you’ll get questions, admiration, and feedback. You may even get more of this than you’d get in a large gallery exhibition. You’ll definitely get a lot of pleasure, practice curating your work, and putting together something compelling.
Since this is meant to be something you do frequently I’d suggest investing a tiny bit of money to make it more fun and a lot easier. The investment will be small and most of you can get the two items you need overnight from Amazon. Grab yourself any kind of magnetic sheet specified as a magnetic “chalk board” or “dry erase board” and a bunch of those tiny little magnets. You can buy these magnetic surfaces in a ton of styles that will fit into any small area as I’ve illustrated in the two selections I’ve highlighted but feel free to make your own and style it with your imagination as the only limit.
I started doing this way back in my darkroom days because I liked to live with small prints and how I decided to print them for a while before committing to making the final larger prints. Eventually those small prints were not completely unrelated but formed small projects that instead of sitting in a pile on my desk to go through when it crossed my mind, they ended up on the wall. When they did I could clearly see what belonged and what didn’t. I started subconsciously and consciously evaluating their relationships to each other. Without even trying much I improved my self-editing and curation skills. What’s even better is without knowing it at first, seeing those mini-exhibitions, they gave me ideas… ideas for current projects and for new projects.
Don’t worry, even if you are highly resistant to still-life photography, I’ll do my best to get all of you through this winter with me. Make yourself a mini-exhibition, here are a bunch of reasons.
It’s fun, much more fun than a pile of prints on your desk.
You will get better at curating your photographs and self-editing, you will get new ideas.
It will get you away from the screen.
You’ll have something to sell when a public display space opportunity presents itself. You may have multiple “shows” to exhibit. You’ll be far more than half-way there.
You will get better at printing your images, you’ll make more confident decisions rendering those big, expensive prints.
Workshop updates
The Portfolio Workshop
I’ll give you the bad news first. We scheduled two in 2026, they immediately filled up, yes both of them with people that asked to be on a waiting list when I posted those availabilities. So, if you are interested we’ve opened up a date for 2027. Registration is available over on Les’ site.
If the date does not work for you we also decided to offer the same experience for those that want a more customized experience and cannot travel to us. We’ll be taking a very limited number of people for this custom, remote version of the workshop. You can sign-up at Les’s website but feel free to email us at portfolio@paperartscollective.com with any questions.
Intro To Fine Art Printing
We’ve opened a new date (May 2, 2026) for our most popular workshop — Intro To Fine Art Printing. This one-day workshop fills up quick as we strictly limit attendance to four participants. You can find more information and sign-up over at Les’ website.
Matting & Framing Workshop
This workshop is not about printing, instead it’s a hands-on workshop that shows you how to mat and frame your work. Due to the hands-on nature of this workshop it’s limited to three participants and is offered once/year. Get more info and register on Les’ site.
That’s it for now but we have some other workshop topics in the works for 2026 but we’ve had a hard time keeping up with our most popular workshops. If the dates currently available fill up please do not hesitate to ask us to be on a waiting list. We’ll do our best to make sure you get the first opportunity for newly scheduled dates.
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I'm envisioning guerilla style public mini-exhibitions in places of informal gathering. Probably as good a tool for building community as it is for developing one's skill at presentation. Really great idea. Thanks.
GREAT frickin’ idea! thanks!