There are five types of art active in Britain, all very different.
1. There is academic art; made by art school graduates, exhibited at The Royal Academy and museums and galleries of prestige across the country, and a few relatively numerous London art galleries. This type of art is typically installation, sculpture, multi-media, mixed media.
2. There is commercial art, exhibited by smaller galleries and art shops, including artwork retail chains. This type of art tends to be paintings (typically acrylic) with lower-priced prints. Works are emotionally and thematically sterile, yet pretty; mainstream, like commercial pop music.
3. There is local public art funded and curated by local government or public bodies with government links. One aim here is a display of public engagement with a community, and the focus can be as much on the creator, or creative group, as the consumer. The art is necessarily bland and highly politicised in its primary aim of not offending anyone and avoiding saying anything important or interesting; aside from 'good news' propaganda about how good local arts are, and how brilliant local government is for supporting it.
4. The fourth category is any art made by hobbyists and enthusiasts, which may be exhibited or not, and can cover a wide gamut in styles, themes, etc. The median artist here is a retired old lady and the median subject a landscape or animal, though this category is the largest and most numerous and covers every style and type of art from the brilliant to the mundane.
5. A fifth category is commercial illustration, which can be everything from poster and book cover design, to painted portraits or commissioned designs for special (or even state) occasions. Perhaps historically, this was the primary type of art, first supplanted by photography and now by digital means.
