How should I display my pixel art in a gallery?

[Gil]

I've been offered to display some of my pixel art in one of those trendy bars that have art for sale. Now I'm wondering what the best way to present pixel art is. It doesn't really have a retro or arcade vibe or I'd go with a flickering CRT. So yeah, we're talking about printing.

Should I print on paper or cloth, matte or gloss? What size should I go with to really present the pixels? It's 16 colors, so some weird pixel art screenprint experiment also seems out of the question. Maybe I should visit my local print shop to ask for advice too.

Also, if I put it up for sale, how does that work for prints? Is there anything I can do to make it more than a print? I don't want to charge people premium for a print.

For reference, these are the pieces they are interested in displaying/selling:

[RadicalDreamer]

To get it to look most like you see on a monitor I would think glossy paper because that will take in more light, but it can cause a really bad glare. I like glossy paper mostly because it has sharper edges. Matte paper can be nice, but it will keep the colors muted and they won't look as bright as on the screen. And unless your monitor is calibrated right no matter which paper you choose it might look funny to you when you print it.  If it's going to be framed behind glass then glossy paper isn't even an option. On the flipside, nude glossy paper loves dust and you can scratch the coating when trying to wipe dust off. So behind glass = lots of glare, no glass = picture gets dirty easy. So I guess try to find a bright matte paper

[Gil]

You seem to be thinking the same thing as me, that whatever I do, I should aim to get maximum color saturation and contrast. That seems to be the main element of the drawings.

[RadicalDreamer]

You seem to be thinking the same thing as me, that whatever I do, I should aim to get maximum color saturation and contrast. That seems to be the main element of the drawings.

It's obvious the only solution is to just compare how it looks on matte and gloss there's also semi-gloss paper.

[Ryumaru]

Satin is king. In terms of presentation, I would just try and have it printed as large as possible so the pixels are very present; otherwise it just looks like a weird image. Perhaps even a subtle filter that plays up the pixels might be nice, like a grid that makes it apparent that the background is also aligned.

Not much you can do to make it more than a print. I mean if it's only two pieces you could hand paint it :p A nice real signature is cool. You could try a custom mat job ( if framed) with something similar to a dither motif in the corners.

[Gil]

Yeah, the pixeled signatures need to go and the small purple signature will probably be done by hand, to make it more genuine.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I'll just need to stop by my local print shop and sample a bunch of papers, pantones, etc.

[RadicalDreamer]

Yeah, the pixeled signatures need to go and the small purple signature will probably be done by hand, to make it more genuine.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I'll just need to stop by my local print shop and sample a bunch of papers, pantones, etc.

You really should go to a professional print shop if you're serious about it, too. I remember going to staples to print stuff because I didn't have a large printer when I was in college and I had to teach them how to print my art  They didn't even know the difference between RGB and CMYK.

[Gil]

Oh no, I have a local print shop that's pretty professional. I'm not going to pick a color space like CMYK and just print it though, I'm going to hand-pick the pantones if I can.

[Basketcase]

Having your pixels printed on glass could be pretty cool, e.g. https://www.fractureme.com/

[surt]

Something like that with translucent ink, a diffusing backing and a backlighting could be cool to capture the on-emissive-display quality.