The Salt Lake City art business, not hugely lucrative to begin with, is in a state of uneasy transition. At least four galleries have closed in recent months. Other galleries are adapting to a variety of market forces, from Internet retailers to the boom in charity art auctions to artists who sell work directly to customers through Web sites or studio open houses.

"The whole gallery business is changing," says Dave Ericson, who has owned his eponymous downtown gallery since 1978. "Artists are finding ways not to use the galleries. And that's our biggest concern. The public couldn't care less who they buy from."

With the holiday shopping season upon us, many Utahns will give original paintings, photographs, sculpture or glass art as gifts. At the same time, artists and art retailers are enjoying what traditionally is their busiest time of year. For professional artists, most of whom struggle to earn a living, the holidays are another opportunity to find new markets for their work. Increasingly, that means bypassing galleries.

"I've always been a gallery person. And I think you get your name by being a gallery person," says Salt Lake City landscape painter Kathryn Stats, who sells all her work through a gallery in San Antonio, Texas. "But artists need to take matters in their own hands to sell their work wherever they can."

Most established artists, brought up in a simpler age when galleries and public art centers were the only showcase, prefer to sell through brick-and-mortar venues. But as consumers have grown comfortable shopping on the Internet, more artists are selling art through their Web sites or via online brokers such as eBay or guild.com.

Salt Lake City artist Catherine Hostetter began selling her paintings on eBay in 2001 and has done so well that she quit her full-time job two years ago to focus on her art. Her paintings, many of them whimsical images of cats and other animals, sell for $70 to $400 apiece. That's less than she'd command in a gallery, but her sales volume makes it worth it.

"You can put a painting up in a gallery and it'll just sit there for a couple of months," says Hostetter, who now has repeat online customers from around the country whom she's never met. "But on eBay it tends to sell quicker. A lot of times my stuff will sell the first week. I really feel there's a big future in selling online."

Double-edged sword: Some Salt Lake City art dealers see the Internet as a double-edged sword. On one hand, galleries can post images of artists' work on their Web sites, attracting customers into the store to view the art firsthand and possibly make a purchase. But so far galleries aren't selling much art online.

"What we've found is that people need to see the work in person to feel comfortable about what they're purchasing," says Meri DeCaria, director of the venerable Phillips Gallery. "We've only sold a handful of pieces over our Web site."

Several gallery owners also report seeing customers who express interest in an artist's work, leave without buying and then contact the artist through the Internet in search of a discount.

Galleries have long acted like gatekeepers, accepting only a small fraction of the artists who apply. The best, or most commercial, artists are showcased in established galleries, while edgier or less accomplished artists end up in emerging galleries or must find other venues for their art. In this way, galleries act like a filter, conferring legitimacy on the artists whose work they show.

"People trust the galleries," says Salt Lake City painter Connie Borup. "They have credibility. If you have a show at Phillips, that means something."

But to circumvent this filtering process, or to avoid paying gallery commissions, more artists are selling work directly from their studios. Many of Salt Lake's studio enclaves, such as Artspace, Poor Yorick's or the Rockwood Studios, hold regular strolls or open houses.

Although he's still represented by one gallery, landscape painter Royden Card opened a working studio and gallery space last month in Ivins, northwest of St. George. Card says he grew tired of galleries raising their commissions. When he started out as an artist in the 1970s, galleries took a commission of about 25 percent, he says. Today, the standard gallery commission is close to 50 percent.

"If the gallery is taking out ads in magazines and doing brochures for you, maybe they're worth it. But a lot of galleries don't do that level of work," he says. "This works out better for me. I do what I want here."

Charity's cut: Between the growth of art festivals and charity auctions, Utahns today can fill their homes with original art without ever setting foot in a gallery. In recent years, many nonprofits have discovered that fine art, sold through auctions or other events, can be a potent fundraising tool. Some gallery owners complain these charity events, which feature up to hundreds of artworks, have cut into their business.

"It's a terrible thing for all the galleries," says DeCaria of Phillips Gallery. "I've called clients who say they're buying all their art at auctions."

"If there were one or two [auctions] it would be a small thing. But there are so many," agrees Clayton Williams, owner of Williams Fine Art near Temple Square. "While I support the charities wholeheartedly in terms of what they do . . . it is a conflict. I'd prefer they concentrate more on some other means of raising money."

Karen Horne, owner of Horne Fine Art, believes charity auctions are poor places to collect art because artists often don't donate their best work. Paintings and sculptures also usually sell for less at an auction than they would in a gallery, undermining artists by lowering the market value of their work, Horne says.

But Sheri Harrell, organizer of the popular Art & Soup event held each spring to benefit Community Nursing Services, believes charity auctions play an important role by making art affordable while benefiting a good cause. Such events might actually benefit art galleries by introducing Utahns to specific artists and to art collecting in general, she says.

"We don't want to undo anybody's business," she says. "We're just available two days a year. All the people who are buying art the other 363 days of the year, we can't meet their needs. So there's room for both."

No price games: Wherever Utahns buy and sell their art these days, there is one thing most artists and gallery owners agree on: Prices for artwork should be consistent.

"It's not a good idea to play price games," says Stats, who refers all collectors' queries to the gallery that represents her. "I never lower the price. You don't want to undercut your gallery. And it's not fair to your collectors. The painting's worth what it's worth, no matter where you buy it."

Pricing art is not an exact science, and some buyers don't understand why a scrap of canvas adorned with paint can cost several thousand dollars. But prices reflect the artist's materials, time and framing costs, plus a gallery markup that goes to pay for rent, lighting, insurance, staffing and publicity. They also reflect an artist's reputation, which can grow over the course of a career and explains why fine art is considered an investment.

Still, at a time when consumers are conditioned to expect bargains at Costco and on eBay, many don't want to pay full price for art. And that has some galleries anxious.

"People in Utah like to get rid of the middleman. And we are the middleman," says Linda Southam, owner of Southam Gallery, which has sold art in downtown Salt Lake City for 23 years. "The bottom line is that artists only need the galleries to get them going so that people know their name. After that, they . . . can go to the auctions, or to their own Web sites. It'll be the undoing of the art galleries."

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* BRANDON GRIGGS can be contacted at griggs@sltrib.com or 801-257-8689. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.