Displaying Giclee (Gallery Wrap) in Home - Lighting and Other Considerations

BBdude · Feb 19, 2013

Hi All,

Hope this is the right place for my question - excuse me if my jargon is off. My wife and I bought a beautiful giclee last summer while in Maui (Glassy Morning - here Limited Editions - Window To Paradise Fine Art Photographs Maui Hawaii). It was taken by Mark Middleton (we love his stuff) and is on a 24x36 gallery wrap. This is the only article we own, which I would consider "art" and on canvas. Over the long-term, we'd like to get more pieces of Mark's or make some of our own (recently bought a Nikon 5100), but one step at a time

.

On to my question - we'd like this wrap to be a center-piece in our home or at least presented tastefully. We recently bought a house and thought of hanging the piece in the living room or family room (more visibility). The place I'd love to hang it is above the gas fireplace as your eyes are immediately drawn this way, but don't want to risk hurting the giclee. A few questions:

Would you prefer natural lighting for the giclee or install a light for the specific piece?
Would you paint the room with a color (or colors) from the giclee?

It may sound silly, but I'd like this giclee to drive the entire theme/color of the room where it hangs. I think this would also allow us to easily add to our collection down the road.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Novice Noob.

KmH · Feb 19, 2013

Without a dedicated light, the image will look somewhat different as light in the room changes during the course of a day.
The color temperature of sunlight filtered through windows will change throughout the day and with weather.
Different light types have different color temperatures, which will affect how colors in the image will look.

In other words, the way to have the image look the same all the time is to install a light for the image that has a color temperature that closely approximates sunlight (about 5500°K).
Color temperature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All light is natural light.

Designer · Feb 19, 2013

I wouldn't hang it above the fireplace. Also keep it out of sunlight. I guess I'd place a picture light above it if there isn't enough room light.

spacefuzz · Feb 19, 2013

try to avoid lighting it with flourescent bulbs, they can also fade work over time.

KmH · Feb 19, 2013

I would probably avoid over the fireplace as a location too, unless:
1. I knew for sure the fireplace was sufficiently ventilated that soot from the gas wouldn't accumulate on the galery wrap
2. The temperature of the wall behind the gallery wrap stayed fairly constant even when the gas fireplace was in use.

One of the drawbacks to having a galley wrap is that it is exposed to environmental contamination, where as a framed and glazed print can be better protected.