I covered a story a while ago about American semi-precious stone Art (Lapidary) and how it was not recognised by the official Art establishments as a true Art (Ridiculous!! You couldn't see a purer art form if you tried!). see http://secondlife.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/ The artist Schmonson Dalglish brought Lapidary into Second Life to show the world these wonderful stone crafted pictures. Second Life is becoming big business for many artists, sculptors, illustrators and photographers alike, who see the virtual world as a big chance to display their work to a world-wide audience and have it on display for 24 hours 7 days a week.

There has been an Art Fair in SL Mayfair running the whole of June, some ten galleries have been rented by various artists and photographers in the sim this month. I have been lucky enough to interview some of them and ask them why they chose SL to display their work.
Many of them are established artists or photographers in the real world already, but they felt that the 3 dimensional galleries in SL were a unique way of getting their work across. Many have their own websites, but the flat images on the 2 dimensional websites lack the same feel that the 3 dimensional SL galleries do, enabling the viewer to walk into the area, as if it were a real life Gallery. Benefits too in displaying sculptures in SL, as you have the choice of walking all round the artwork, viewing it from all sides.
Cost is another advantage to displaying art virtually, as you can create a whole gallery to show a large amount of artwork for a minimum amount of money. If you rent a Gallery in a virtual city it will probably cost you only a few US dollars a week (say 500 Linden Dollars rent would be approximately 2 American dollars). If you manage to sell a couple of your paintings within SL (a virtual copy not a real one) then you have paid for your rent and may make a little on top. Absolute peanuts compared to renting or owning a Gallery in real life. If you have your website address on view as well to take orders for your real life work, then the possibilities are endless.
I've been meeting some wonderful professional artists and photographers over the last few weeks, everyone one of them have been passionate about their work. Using SL in this way is not only good business for them, it also gives the rest of us a chance to see, up close, their amazing talent. You can see my interviews at http://sllondon.blogspot.com/