Columbia SC library hosting tiny art market Aug. 2

COLUMBIA — Honey, they’ve shrunk the art.

A pair of Columbia artists are bringing a vendor market to Richland Library Main from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 2. The catch?

“Nothing over 4 inches,” said Caroline Clark, a ceramicist who’s putting on the tiny art market with fellow Columbia artist Caroline Fields.

Small Mart is a one-day market at the Assembly Street library featuring hand-held art. The market, which will feature workshops and crafts, is accompanied by an exhibit of tiny artworks in the library’s lobby. “Pocket Places” will be on display at the library from July 25 to Aug. 10.

“We just wanted to create this fun, joyful event that we felt like everybody really needs right now,” Clark said. “There’s a lot of really unpleasant things happening and tiny art really brings this sense of wonder and this sense of slowing down and examining things closer.”

Clark and Fields met doing vendor markets at NOMA Market. Since the Cottontown business has closed, they haven’t been able to find a spot to sell tiny art. But Fields and Clark found a new home at the library.

In addition to 27 artists from the Carolinas, the market will also feature tiny games, mini cupcakes and tiny tarot readings, Clark said. It’s free to attend.

Tiny art a big trend

Stacey Black of Bee Bottom Art — the “OG of tiny art” in Columbia, according to Clark — will be selling her wares at the Aug. 2 market. She started painting in 2016 and selling at Soda City Market in 2020. Her tiny paintings offer a window into a whimsical, playful world.

“I’ve learned working with customers on a weekly basis … I can see it brings them joy and happiness to see people just love small things,” Black said. “It just makes people smile.”

Tiny art has been an increasingly popular trend the past few years, and the market on Aug. 2 will see tiny artists and traditional creators trying their hand at the small works. Black’s pieces range from $2 to more than $100, and many other tiny art pieces fall into that same range, making them more affordable than thousand-dollar landscapes and sculptures.

But just because they’re tinier than traditional artworks doesn’t mean they’re easy pieces to craft.

“People think, ‘oh, it’s smaller. Well, it should be cheap,’” Clark said. “But it often takes longer to make the tiny art than it does to make something bigger.”