Giving the gift of art

If you're looking for a most unique gift to give this holiday, look no further than your local gallery.


Art is more affordable than you think, and makes for great gifts. And two Brooklyn gallery sales recently caught our eye.


In Bay Ridge, Tabla Rasa is even holding a "Backroom Art Sale" of affordable works by its gallery artists, including Jenny Toth, Beatrice Coron, Sheila Goloborotko, Russell Mehlman (work pictured), Agnes Murray, Nancy Lunsford, and Elyse Taylor, with abstracts, figures, trees, urban landscapes, paper-cuts, and imaginative fantasy images to choose from.


All works are original, discounted to sell, with no work priced above $400, and are ready to take home upon purchase.


Over in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the street art-prone Brooklynite Gallery is also encouraging art buyers, novice or not, to give the gift of original art. Some works start as low as $20. 


This year the gallery also introduced mini-post card size gems of art from a select group of international artists, entitled "Snub Nose Prints," which could be a great alternative to the usual gifts for your friends, family or colleagues. And of course, it also offers a variety of larger prints and original paintings to fill those empty white walls in the homes of your friends and family.


UPDATE: We also just read about a holiday craft fair going on in Ditmas Park at the Kris Waldherrr gallery on, fittingly, the Ditmas Park blog.


Readers, any galleries you'd like to add for scoring great art?

Backroom art sale at Tabla Rasa [224 48th St. between Second and Third avenues in Bay Ridge, (718) 833-9100],  now through Jan. 8 from from 1-5 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; Brooklyn Gallery [334 Malcolm X Blvd. between Decatur and Bainbridge streets in Bedford-Stuyvesant, (347) 405-5976].