How to Buy Art Directly from an Artist — And Why You Should

The gallery model has defined how most people think about buying art. You go to a gallery, you see the work, you pay a price that includes the gallery’s commission — typically between forty and sixty percent of the sale price — and the gallery handles the transaction. The artist receives the remainder. The gallery provides the context, the credibility, and the access.

That model exists for good reasons. Galleries do real work: they discover artists, build audiences, and create the institutional context that allows a body of work to be understood as more than individual objects. For many artists, gallery representation is essential.

But for the buyer who already knows what they want — who has done the research, identified the artist, and decided that a specific body of work is worth owning — buying directly from the artist is a different kind of transaction. It is simpler, more personal, and almost always more interesting.

What You Gain When You Buy Art Directly from an Artist

When you buy art directly from an artist, three things change.

The price reflects the work, not the markup. A gallery commission of forty to sixty percent means that a piece priced at $1,000 in a gallery generates $400 to $600 for the artist. When you buy directly, the full price goes to the studio — which means the artist can price the work at what the work actually costs to make, without building in the margin that sustains an intermediary. That doesn’t mean artist-direct prices are always lower — it means they are more honest.

The conversation is direct. When you buy through a gallery, your questions are filtered through a salesperson whose knowledge of the work is secondhand. When you buy directly from Fernando Durao, the person who answers your email is the person who made the piece. That conversation has a different quality — and it gives you information about the work that no gallery staff member could provide.

The provenance is cleaner. A piece bought directly from the artist, accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity from that artist, has the simplest possible provenance chain. There is no auction record to research, no gallery history to verify. There is a maker, a piece, and a document that connects them. That simplicity is valuable — practically and symbolically.

How to Buy Art Directly from an Artist — What to Look For

Not every artist who sells directly is worth buying from directly. The gallery model exists partly because galleries do the vetting work that individual buyers would otherwise have to do themselves. When you buy art directly from an artist, that vetting responsibility shifts to you.

Four things to look for:

A verifiable identity. The artist should have a name, a studio address, a traceable history. Not a social media presence — a history. Years of work, references, documentation of exhibitions or placements. Fernando Durao’s work has been carried by Fontenla and placed in projects by Hugo Di Marco at Casa FOA. That history is public and verifiable.

A documented process. The work should have a process that can be explained and verified — not just described in marketing language. Wheel-thrown high-fire stoneware finished with custom mineral slips and fired at 1200°C is a process that can be understood, verified by its results, and distinguished from work made by other means.

A certificate of authenticity. Every piece should come with documentation that confirms what it is — who made it, what it is made from, and that it is an original, unrepeatable work. Without that document, the buyer has only the artist’s word.

A clear shipping and customs policy. International artist-direct purchases involve logistics that gallery purchases typically don’t. The artist should be transparent about how pieces are shipped, what insurance covers, and what the buyer’s responsibilities are upon arrival — including any customs duties.

How Buying Art Directly from Fernando Durao Works

At Durao Studio, the process of buying art directly from the artist is straightforward.

Browse the collections on this site — Unikas Black, Unikas Quartz, and Moradores. Each piece is photographed as it exists: a specific form, a specific surface, a specific object. When you find a piece that interests you, contact Fernando directly through the contact page or by email. He will respond personally — with additional photographs if needed, with information about the piece’s dimensions and weight, with the shipping timeline and cost confirmation.

Payment is through PayPal, which provides buyer protection for the transaction. Shipping is door-to-door from Buenos Aires to any address in the United States, fully insured. Each piece ships with a signed certificate of authenticity and complete customs documentation.

Fernando does not produce custom work to specification. What he makes is what he makes — and the buyer’s role is to find, within that body of work, the piece that belongs in their space. That constraint is not a limitation. It is what makes the result interesting: the piece was not made for the project. The project found the piece.

Why Buying Art Directly from an Artist Matters Beyond the Transaction

There is a practical case for buying art directly from an artist — the price, the conversation, the provenance. But there is also a case that goes beyond the practical.

When you buy directly from Fernando Durao, the money goes to the studio. Not to a gallery’s operating costs, not to an auction house’s commission structure. To the studio — to the clay, the minerals, the kiln’s electricity, the time that goes into the next piece. That connection between the purchase and the production of future work is not incidental. It is what sustains a studio practice.

Studio pottery at the level Fernando practices it — thirty-five years of daily work, custom mineral formulas developed over decades, a kiln fired to 1200°C — requires a studio that can sustain itself. When a piece sells, the studio continues. The next firing happens. The next form emerges from the wheel and is either selected or discarded. The practice goes on.

Buying art directly from an artist is not an act of charity. It is a transaction with a clear object on one side and a clear price on the other. But it is a transaction that, when it happens at the right level, sustains something worth sustaining.

Browse the collections available to buy directly from Fernando Durao — Unikas Black, Unikas Quartz, and Moradores.

For more on what makes each piece worth buying, read One of a Kind Ceramic Art: What It Really Means and What Makes a Ceramic Piece Worth Collecting.

To begin the conversation, contact Fernando directly. All messages are answered personally.

Follow the studio: @durao.studio

For context on the art market and direct sales models, see Art market on Wikipedia.