So what are the prospects for a small-time buyer on a budget? You may not be able to afford a Jeff Koons or a Damien Hirst, but there are plenty of talented, less hyped artists out there. You can sample them in the leading UK private galleries: White Cube, Flowers Central, Flowers East, Victoria Miro, the Lisson, Modern Art and Transition all show well established and rising artists. Check out their websites to see examples of the work and to find out the background. Then there's the Saatchi Gallery in its huge new home at London's County Hall, where you can sample the likes of Jake and Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili.

The Turner Prize offers an interesting perspective on British art, as each year it mounts a show by its short-listed artists. This year they are Kutlug Ataman, Jeremy Deller, Langlands and Bell, and Yinke Shonibare. If you can't make the show, which opens at Tate Britain in October, you can see their work on the Turner Prize websites (see Find out more), where you can also find out about the artists who have been short-listed in previous years.

Keep an eye on the contemporary art press - titles like Art Monthly, frieze and ArtReview (details in Find out more) offer articles on rising artists and information about shows. Time Out magazine is also excellent for London listings.

The real fun, of course, is hunting for undiscovered talent. Local art galleries and studios will run shows – sometimes of individual artists and sometimes mixed exhibitions. Often artists' collectives will hire a space and display their own work: look out for flyers or leaflets in libraries, cafés and galleries. And check out the art colleges: they all hold end-of-year shows, and often put on smaller exhibitions at other times.

Think of it as a descent into the labyrinth of artistic creativity ...

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