The Art Gallery Experience for the Artist

What’s It Like Dealing with a Gallery?

If you’re a visual artist, and you’ve paid your dues in the art world for a few years, there’s not much I can tell you about dealing with art galleries. But for those of you who are only minimally acquainted with the experience, please permit me to give you a quick rundown here.

Let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that the gallery in question is an honest, professional operation, with a track record and a solid portfolio of customers.  (This supposing rather much, mind you.) You show up there with your portfolio and are fortunate enough to be scheduled for a show. There is a slot open the year after next, in the month of September. It’s a long way off, but you’re nonetheless pleased. You’ve got a show. But what are the conditions?

The standard deal runs to 50% commission on sales and a minimum of $250 for the opening-night cocktail. If there’s to be a catalog, a decent gallery will probably require you to pay half of its cost: minimum $1,000. Less decent places will leave the financing of the catalog entirely to the artist: minimum $2,000. The invitations are subject to the same conditions. Not many local art galleries are Internet hip, so don’t expect much support on the Web. Some of the more splendid venues (banks, public galleries) will waive all of these requirements and pick up the tab for everything. But most of them will require that you leave them a painting when your show is over. They will select the painting. Will it be your best one?

This is the best-outcome scenario. It’s all downhill from here, and you don’t want to hear about the worst. Besides, we’re not here to diss the galleries. We’re here to explore and share creative alternatives. Now’s the time to browse through the case studies you’ll find in the right-hand column of this site, to contribute your own experience to them, to learn from them, and to use what you’ve learned to elaborate your own creative strategy for cutting the gallery out of the picture. Best of luck. Surprise yourself, then tell us about it!

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