Following Fair Trade Principles

Gathinja's "I'm in Three Places"


Africa is often found to be an impoverished continent in many regards. African artists, & other citizens in several countries inside Africa, struggle to find work and when they do, it still is not enough to live a bountiful life. 

Now, those in their forties are the leaders in the economy and their community. Their standard of living alleviates some of the poverty issues, but living in Africa remains a struggle in many countries mostly due to government corruption and an absence of a full education for all citizens.

Since 2004, we have been able to build solid and beneficial relationships with several of our African artists that provides them with repeated income that they come to expect in order to live their desired lifestyle.

True African Art is committed to the established Fair Trade Federation principles when we work with our African artists. This transparency includes all the points below and more, giving our African artists a job to do, money to make, and a better life to live.

How we do Business with our Artists:

  • Our relationship with our Artists from Africa first looks to format the moral virtues of honesty, good communication, and a serious practice of responsibility so that trust and respect centers between us and our artists are held in high regard for the dozens of international relationships that we hold for our clients.

  • We buy our artworks directly from the African artist whenever we can and not from a gallery, so that the artist alone profits.
  • We pay our artists a fair price for their paintings that most often they set.

  • Since we buy most artworks directly, our artists profit immediately and don't have to wait for their painting to sell on our site before getting paid.

  • There is no fee for them to be on the Site, only profits.

  • We attempt to keep in touch with most of our artists we know personally.  We don't "Buy and Bye."  Instead, for many artists we pledge to do repeat business with them when their artwork stock sells.

  • For more fine art, we put a higher price tag on it so that we can share some of the profits with the artist when it sells.  So the artist gets paid twice:  Once when we first buy the painting, and again when it sells.

  • We give most of our artists a substantial, up front, cash deposit for the custom artwork they will make.

  • We give our African artists free, worldwide exposure and promotion through True African Art .com and our presence on Instagram at 13,000 + Followers and on Facebook at almost 335,000 members.  @TrueAfricanArt

  • We are an all African ancestry staff, so that artists deal with someone from their own culture, not one they are not familiar with.

    How we do Business with You:

    • Our commitment to you acts in the hopes that it will result in your continued commitment to us.

    • We provide timely & professional customer service you expect and deserve when you are in any correspondence with us.

    • We supply original African paintings and their prints to you at a fair price by offering a Lowest Price Guarantee on all our African art paintings.

    • Our online Checkout system is transparent and secure.  We also offer the  choice to process your transaction offline such as over the phone.

    • You have our that we have purchased and hold about 80% of all our paintings near New York City.   The other 20% are on consignment with our more responsible artists who are in a contract with us.

    • We give Complimentary Worldwide Shipping on all of our original paintings.

    • To help you decide on purchasing a piece you may not be sure of, we offer an Easy 60 Day Try-it-Out period where you can make returns automatically.

    To Learn More About our Website and Staff

    Click "About" in the navigation menu above and then click either Gathinja's or Michael's link, staff for True African Art.