Video by Annie Chang/Daily senior staffer
Artwork ranging from depictions of the Chicago night skyline to color swatches and anonymous self-portraits is for sale Tuesday and Wednesday at Northwestern Art Review’s “Abandoned Art Market.”
NAR is selling art made by students in the art theory and practice department in a two-day “Abandoned Art Market” at Norris University Center, 1999 Campus Drive. These are works that would normally be thrown away after the art classes end. Proceeds will fund the spring quarter NAR journal, editor and event organizer Katie Cannady said.
The art sale includes both abandoned art and some art donated by graduate students. Canvases and framed photographs are sorted into piles according to price, starting at $1. Some art is being auctioned off over the two-day period, with a running list of bids.
Cannady, a Medill junior, said donated art typically costs $60 to $120. Bids started at a low price and by Tuesday afternoon went up to $60 on some pieces. Cannady said she and a friend sorted through the art to determine the price based on the quality of the piece.
“These are genuine works of art literally sold for a tiny fraction of the normal price,” Cannady said. “Some of it is funny, and some is genuinely really good.”
Medill junior Natalie Krebs visited the sale Tuesday afternoon after seeing a promotion for the event on Facebook. She said she has an amateur interest in art and was looking for pieces to decorate her apartment.
“I didn’t know what I was looking for,” Krebs said. “I didn’t know what art would be on display, but I wanted to see what abandoned art from Kresge looked like so I came by.”
She did not buy anything that afternoon, but she bid on one piece.
“There’s some pieces I’m surprised people left behind,” she said. “There’s some cool stuff, and there’s some that I would expect to be left behind.”
Joshua Parker, a first-year art graduate student, donated art to the cause. He said a team from NAR stopped by the graduate studio and he decided to give them some of his work.
“We didn’t have any abandoned art like they were looking for, so I offered to donate some drawings and a print,” Parker said.
The art market continues Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Lake Room in Norris.
