How to Get Your Art in a Gallery

If you want gallery representation, ideally, the gallery will discover you. Short of that, networking a web of relationships in the industry, including with galleries that show artwork similar to yours, is a good place to start. For an artist, marketing yourself to a gallery is like dating. You want to make yourself look available for good opportunities but not desperate…

Check out these recommendations below, including some steps you can take right now to feel like you are moving your art career forward (for free).

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Getting your art into a gallery using the information at your fingertips

How being curious can help you get into a gallery: behind-the-scenes research offers free and readily available information to help you get into a gallery.

1. Research: Art Galleries Near Me

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket when looking for an art gallery. Open a document on your computer or pull out a notebook and start a list of brick-and-mortar art galleries near you and further afield that you like.

• Go to their websites one by one.
• Note their address, their website, the name of their director (and their email if they list one).
• Read their description (what do they say they show?) read the director’s resume. Where did they go to school? What is their area of interest or expertise? How does it align with what you do? (hint, if it doesn’t, there will be less interest). You may be surprised at the potential overlap.

Make an initial list of galleries as long as you want, but select under 10 as your first crop of research, ideally no more than 3-5. Create a spreadsheet. Reserve a column, row or page for each gallery, then figure out what information (beyond what’s mentioned above to collect in your notes).

Here is a spreadsheet example you can use (Google docs).

2. Take notes on the exhibiting artists

One item to be sure to note. Who does the gallery show? On each gallery website, look at their list of artists. If you are seeking gallery representation, is this a gallery that offers representation? Or, do they just exhibit artists? What level of artist do they show? Emerging artists? Mid-career artists? Established or Blue-chip? What style?

The artists a gallery shows will tell you a lot about whether or not you may fit into their exhibition program. If you have exhibited with some of the artists before, that’s a clue that you may be on the right track. Make notes at who they’ve exhibited in the past, and their current and upcoming exhibitions.

3. Look up the artists: Reach out to one of the artists

Don’t be a stalker, but take a few notes: if you know one of them, prepare to send them an email. If you don’t know any, are you connected on linkedin or Instagram via a mutual friend or acquaintance? Go to their website and make a note of contact details.

Prepare to send them a note! Cold emails are least desirable. See if there’s someone who can make an introduction. Take care: it’s important to figure out a way to connect that makes sense and isn’t demanding or entitled. Don’t ask them to connect you with the gallery director or ask if you can have a show there. Rather, ask for advice, ask to meet for a coffee. Some won’t respond, some will. Don’t hold it against them. If you’re lucky you’ll be in a similar position someday.

4. See if you need to eliminate any galleries with further research

Observe the style

Look at the gallery’s website and the installation photos in particular. How does it present the work on view? Would your work look good there? Would your art fit in the space? (Or, do you make oversized sculptures and the gallery is the size of a postage stamp?) Go to a search engine and see what other photos are there. Take notes.

Don’t forget to remove a gallery from your list of potentials if they don’t meet the criteria necessary for exhibiting your work.

Look for the online reviews

Check out what kinds of reviews a gallery is getting. If artists are writing that they’re not getting paid, run in the opposite direction. And while it may be disappointing to remove a high-potential gallery from your list, you want to be selective for the long-term benefit of your career.

5. Define the gallery’s business model

There are a variety of business models for galleries. The top ones I would note are: commercial, nonprofit, co-op, artist self-run (artist named, artist exhibiting their own work, vanity, or “unsure.” (sometimes you just can’t tell!)

Hint: read the “about” if you see one director highlighted – usually it’s a commercial space.

Co-ops, nonprofits, and more

If you have the funds, joining a co-op is an easy way to start showing quickly. You are essentially buying into an art club/business for a monthly fee, plus the labor they demand of you in return. Nonprofits range widely in what they can give and what you’ll get as a final product. Commercial galleries run from touristy shacks and mall spaces to the biggest galleries in the world.

The commercial gallery dream

Everyone would like to be represented by a standard commercial art gallery run by a high-flying gallerist with tons of connections who can sell their work just by picking up the phone or shooting off an email. However, this kind of opportunity is virtually nonexistent, at least to most artists.

Know the beast you’re approaching

The reality is that there are a variety of different ways art gallery businesses are set up and run, even though they all may have a physical or digital space with art available for acquisition. Knowing what kind of ‘animal’ you’re working with is incredibly important for your research and making the right types of inquiries that will get you the results you want.

6. Plan to stay up to date

Sign the online guest book, and get yourself on their mailing list. Ensure that you remain up-to-date with your chosen galleries, so you receive their upcoming events emails. Open them and read what the galleries are doing. This information tells you what galleries think is relevant, popular or what people want to attend. This is useful information for you. You can attend these events, or consider producing your own similar event.

7. Look at social calendars, city calendars, gallery’s upcoming events

Go on these websites, subscribe to the calendars, read the paper. Read and make mental and perhaps physical note of the events, openings, artist talks and the like. Mark them in your calendar. Plan to attend some. There is no substitute for networking and making in-person connections.

8. Research message / social media

Go to each of the galleries’ social media presences online. Follow the galleries you admire. Look through the posts, feel free to like a few posts, if you so choose. (don’t like every post or more than about 5, it’s creepy). See what they amplify on social media. How do they talk about art? What seems important? Is this what you think is important?

9. Research trends (and follow online) the beating heart of the art market

This includes such galleries as Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace, Sothebys & Christie’s auction houses; art fairs including Art Basel, Frieze. Online marketplaces such as Saatchi Art and Artsy are good to look at every once in a while too.

Read, at minimum, the highlights of the yearly art market report put out by UBS, and others, so you understand the overall market trends. Being well-informed will ensure you have foundational knowledge to both understand what sells and why, and have a macro view of the art market as a whole.

10. Research open calls

Research grants, residencies, and calls for exhibitions. Figure out what your budget is for submissions and research those galleries who have the calls. Some have open calls as their business model (e.g. your submissions are their source of revenue). Others use them to discover and feature new art. Same with residencies – some are done for the love of the art, others are off-season uses for vacation destinations. View it all through a gimlet eye when applying. Not because that residency or vanity gallery isn’t a valid place to start, but because you need to know what you’re signing up for. Don’t bite into an apple expecting a peach.

Open calls list

For some help, here’s the start of a list of websites that list open calls. I suggest making a list and checking it monthly. There’s a seasonal and yearly rhythm to calls and applications.

Artjobs 
Callforentry 
Discover submittable 
Artcall
Artworkarchive call for entry

11. Bonus Tip. “Make good art”

Bob Fetty is a Florida-based artist, and a dear friend of Chuck Close. He has an unending number of stories of hanging out with the art greats like Robert Rauchenberg (who he calls lil’ Bobby), and others. Every time I speak to him or he talks to fellow artists, his advice for getting into a gallery or a museum show (or selling) is always the same: “Make Good Art.”

So my final advice for something you can do right now, for free: sit and think about what makes your art one of two things: either something that people want to hang in their homes, or something that is innovative and new within the art historical canon. If you don’t have an answer, then you have a hobby, not a career.

How to submit artwork to a gallery

1. Research the gallery first

Find one that shows work in line with your work, with the appropriate calibre of the gallery (e.g., don’t do this at Gagosian)

2. Visit in person, introduce yourself

While you can say you’re an artist, DON’T show anyone your work without an invitation

3. Follow up with a nice email

… about how much you enjoyed your visit, mention a few reasons you enjoyed your visit. Include a link to your website or Instagram (only if you don’t have a website)

4. Submit to calls to art at the said gallery

… and others in the neighborhood or of a similar ilk (you should be cultivating multiple leads at the same time)

5. Create a proposal for a local artist

A curated show (e.g., something that won’t cost the gallery much to put on) is a good way to get your foot in the door. Your proposal can include your work as well as 1-4 others. Have a cohesive concept behind the show. Shop it around to galleries. Be sure to include as many details as you can, including artist bios and CVs, artwork sizes, prices, etc. as well as a curatorial statement.

How to approach art galleries

The 6 “S’s” of Marketing Yourself to a Gallery (or, how finding a gallery isn’t like dating)

For an artist, marketing yourself to a gallery is kind of like dating. You want to make yourself look available but not too available… so how do you do it? Dating might require ‘Sex Appeal’ but we have X other “S” words to entice the elusive gallerist.

1. Show a solid record of Sales

Just starting out and trying to find your FIRST gallery? This isn’t dating where you need to always “be yourself”! The best thing to do is to put yourself into the shoes of a gallery. What would you think they would want, and think about how you can solve their problems.

What galleries don’t need

What galleries DON’T need is overwrought artists looking for validation for their work. They also don’t need disorganized, flaky artists who miss meetings or can’t put together a checklist of their work.

What galleries do need

Competent, organized adults who know how to sell their art. Concretely this means you’re keeping track of all your sales. What is selling, to whom, and for how much? This information will benefit you in the future.

How to communicate this to galleries

If you are looking to approach a gallery – see our prior post with ideas on how to do this, Sales are a great way to start. Galleries always like working with artists who have solid records of sales.

2. Scarcity: Show you’re in demand

Already have a gallery? Make sure you are upfront about it. Other galleries represent a “stamp of approval” – they mean that someone else thinks you are worthy of time and effort (and aren’t a pain to work with!) You are “in demand”!

Don’t look desperate

Make sure to advertise who represents you – on your website and social media. NEVER advertise that you are looking for representation. If a gallery is interested and you don’t list representation in their geographical reason they’ll figure it out. You don’t need to advertise your desperation.

3. Style Similarity

Got a specific style? Make sure that you find the right match in a gallery.

While in romance opposites attract, that isn’t usually the case with galleries.

If you’re a bleeding-edge contemporary installation artist, DON’T approach a secondary-market French impressionist gallery, even if you’ve sworn to email Every. Single. Gallery. In. The. City.

Just don’t.

Be style-selective

Be selective with your gallery-wooing. Check your style and match it up to the gallery. Have a shortlist of targets in perhaps 5-10 cities where you would like to show. But be realistic. Unless you’re the Leonardo DiCaprio of artists you shouldn’t be wooing the Blue Chip Supermodel of galleries (e.g. Pace, Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Gagosian). Those are for your vision board, not for your “target gallery” list.

4. Solicit Support

A recommendation or introductory email is always better than an unsolicited one, any day. It’s the difference between a friend setting you up on a date versus Tinder.

Have you worked with a curator? Are there people in the museum world who like your work? Ask them to play matchmaker for you with a gallery in their “world” – they may know better than anyone what a good fit for you might be. And getting a recommendation from an institutional source is like a gold star of approval in many cases for an artist.

5. Be Social

Don’t forget the power of social media! Yes, we all have a love-hate relationship with it, but discovering art and artists on social media (and seeing who has “traction” or a large following) is meaningful!

(be) Steady

Post on a regular basis. Have a website and social media which consistently shows your work in high-quality well-lit photographs. Cross-promote with any galleries, groups, or others with whom you are working – with tags, and “@”s.

6. Show your Statistics

Statistics can entice. We talked about sales statistics already, but that’s just the start of using data to market yourself to a gallery.

Break it down for the gallery

Talk about the number of hits to your website per day, the number of online sales, and the number of DM inquiries leading to sales. The average price per piece, the number of pieces sold. This information will interest a gallery. Most galleries aren’t leveraging their own data. Use this information wisely!

Working with a gallery is a two-way street

You’re giving up a portion of your sales for their physical overhead, their sales and marketing expertise and connections, an exhibition, and more. Making the right match (as opposed to any match) is important.

You have a lot to offer, you just need to figure out how to present that information in a way that will attract galleries to you! One or more of the suggestions above may help you – and make sure to consider the method of gallery outreach – from Part 1 in this series.