50% US Tariffs Disrupt Canadian Art Sales and Gallery Fairs

By Grace Kim

Since 22 August, the United States has imposed 50% tariffs on paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, pastels, collages and other goods imported from Canada, according to The Art Newspaper. The duties are already reshaping sales and fair plans for Canadian artists and galleries amid the trade war between Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and US president Donald Trump.

The tariff schedule also covers feathers, bones, tortoise shell, horns, antlers and other animal parts. The Art Newspaper reported that these categories will especially affect Indigenous artists.

Mackenzie Sinclair, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of Canada (ADAC), said the tariffs were a significant concern for members because the two countries maintain close economic relations. She called the art market a fragile ecosystem and warned that changed trading conditions can have unforeseen, far-reaching effects across the sector.

The scale of that relationship is visible in Canada’s cultural exports. Sinclair said about two thirds go to the US. In 2023, Canada exported C$27.1bn ($19bn) in cultural products, including C$18.1bn ($12.7bn) bound for the United States.

Canada imposed counter-tariffs—import taxes imposed in response—on hundreds of US imports in early September, according to The Art Newspaper. The taxes include 50% duties on many materials used to make and transport art, plus certain printed materials, including photographs. Paintings, drawings and pastels imported from the US were excluded, but had already faced 25% tariffs as of March 2025.

At Macaulay & Co Fine Art, the immediate change appears in where work travels. The gallery, which has spaces in Vancouver and Toronto, represents First Nations painter Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. Founding director Sarah Macaulay said US buyers had recently accounted for around 10% of Yuxweluptun’s sales.

“Now we’re more focused on Australia and Europe,” Macaulay said. She has also cancelled plans to participate in a fair during Miami Art Week this December, citing the risk created by the latest tariffs.

What does the tariff wall change for US collectors?

For a US buyer, the immediate effect is a substantially higher purchase price. Sinclair said that may lead collectors to postpone a purchase or turn to an artist or gallery based in the US.

“Canadian art is not simply another category of merchandise,” Sinclair said. “It represents the work, livelihoods, cultural expression and international standing of Canadian artists and galleries.”

“For a US collector faced with a substantially higher purchase price, the additional cost may lead them to postpone a purchase or acquire an artwork from a US-based artist or gallery instead. This creates a direct loss of competitiveness for Canadian artists and galleries,” Sinclair said.

That mechanism turns a customs decision into lost sales. A tariff does not merely increase the cost of moving art; it redirects demand while the collector decides whether to buy at all.

Andy Sylvester, owner and director of Vancouver’s Equinox Gallery, expects the shift to be severe. US buyers represented around 15% of his sales until recently. He expects that share to likely fall to zero.

Sylvester said US tariffs on Canadian-made art will affect both the gallery and its artists financially and in terms of opportunities. His warning covers the loss of established sales and the difficulty of replacing those buyers with collectors elsewhere.

Art Toronto, the country’s largest art fair, will test the new market conditions in late October. The Art Newspaper reported that US buyers account for a significant portion of the fair’s annual sales. Director Emily-Jean Alexander has added programmes for people new to buying art.

Alexander said Buy Canadian rhetoric had become prevalent and welcomed the support for artists from communities across the country since the tariffs were imposed. For the autumn fair, her programmes will show newcomers the fair’s friendliness and accessibility, then build their confidence in supporting Canadian galleries and institutions.

The immediate change is geographic, not merely financial: Canadian galleries are looking beyond the US for buyers, with Australia and Europe becoming more prominent. Art Toronto in late October will show whether Alexander’s buyer-building efforts can offset lost US business. Sinclair’s wider warning is practical too: changed trading conditions can reach gallery revenue, artist livelihoods, cultural expression and international standing.