hey guys welcome back to my studio um
this week
i really paid attention to reading a lot
of the comments and trying to figure out
how i could best help you in your art
careers
and so today we're going to tackle the
question of
how do you get your work into galleries
so stay tuned
grab a tea grab a coffee and i'll see
you in a few minutes
okay so i looked in the camera again why
today i'm going to tackle the issue that
you guys have been asking me
about how do you get your work into
galleries
and so how it came to me i can only
speak from my own personal experiences
so i my whole goal
when i was wanting to become a full-time
artist is that i really wanted to have
my work represented by galleries
and i didn't really understand that you
can actually
put forth submissions to art galleries i
know that's a bit weird but
i didn't know i was just starting out
and like all of you
who may be in your um early stages
of wanting to be an artist you know you
don't know either because there's a lot
to know when you're starting this
business
it's not like you can go to school and
just take an art business class
um you know it's a little bit of
information here a little bit more here
and so how it worked for me is
in 2015 i think at the end of 2014 or
the end
or the start of 2015 i can't really
remember now
is i started applying to art shows
and and like more of the higher end art
shows
um not your local um you know 10 booth
show or a local sometimes you'll find
like art shows will happen at a
community center
or within um i guess community center or
i was gonna say religious
entity but i for some reason i couldn't
a church bazaar i think that's the word
i was looking for sorry
and so i didn't go that route i went
straight to
i solidified my body of work and that
doesn't mean
again that doesn't mean my artwork looks
all the same because that really is
not my mo at all i like my work to have
some uniqueness to it so it meant that i
felt confident that my
skill level had attained a certain level
that warranted
me being able to apply for art shows and
so i started applying to the shows here
in toronto
i went to the not the top top i did
a couple of shows that were just
starting out shows
and i got accepted and they were great
and i you know i had a good time and it
was
a good a good way to get to understand
um how to talk about my work how to
present my work to people
and engage with the public so that was a
great little starting point for me
but it's when i took my art to the next
level and i
started applying for the higher end
shows
and murmuring with other artists because
your booths are right next to each other
you always have an artist on either side
of you and maybe
you know on the other end of you as well
or the other in front of you
my goodness um i started
asking questions because that's what you
should be doing when you're still
in the learning phase and i started to
hear murmurs or that's a gallery owner
and
you know so and so owns this gallery and
i
didn't know who those people were i had
never seen them before in my life
and so i asked the question like what
does that mean like why is that such a
big deal
it was explained to me that at these
higher end
art shows that's when the gallery owners
come out and they scout
for new artists to bring on to their
roster list of represented artists and
i thought oh okay so
you know then you become a little bit of
a peacock look at me look at my artwork
i didn't do that i'm not really that
much of an extrovert but
i do like my art business
and i will do um what i need to do
in order for my art business to excel so
i hope that kind of makes sense
so as i started doing more and more art
shows
it did a couple of things it got the art
gallery owners
to kind of pay attention to me because
some of these shows that i were
i was doing that i was getting accepted
into
um cost about depending on your booth
size
can cost you about two to four thousand
dollars and up
and so the fact that i was able to go
back to these shows
year after year was a signal to the
gallery owners
that i first of all must be doing okay
as an artist because i can afford to do
these booths
or pay for these booths second of all it
um i was able to get familiar with them
and they would slowly come to maybe have
a dialogue with me
even though maybe i didn't know who they
were at the time um and it also
let the gallery owners know how well i
did at these shows
was my work sellable were people
actually buying my work
those are all things that gallery owners
want to be able to see
in an artist that they're going to
consider representing
not only that was my body of work strong
every year that i came back
was i able to create something that was
still compelling
um and for me my work morphs it changes
all the time
um not drastically if you follow my
progression
through the years you can see that the
similarities as my work has
changed and sometimes i'll go back and
forth and redo an old body of work
but it really showed the gallery owners
that
i have um i have some strength and i
have some talent
and then i was able to keep coming back
with new fresh work
and so that's how i got the galleries
that i am currently represented by um so
i never actually did a submission
uh through a gallery you can do that
um but i think it really is a lot more
challenging
to do that with a gallery owner what i
can suggest to you
is people want to have a relationship
not only uh to the artwork where they
have this
emotional reaction to the work but they
also want to get to know you
as an artist and when you can build
relationships with people
is that's when you're going to be in a
position
to either reach out and work with that
person you want to get to know them more
and a gallery owner may be more inclined
to
strike up a conversation with you when
there's been some sort of
connection made first what i think is
important
is the public is going to be a great
source of information for you and if
your goal
that you set for yourself is to sell
your artwork then you have to create
something that's sellable
which i know the artists who are
already established are maybe screaming
at me saying
uh art is about creating something
that's provocative
and emotional and has a statement to it
but you know what your art is also a
business so
i come from it by both avenues i'm a
businesswoman
i have a brand and i also am an artist
and there's nothing
absolutely wrong with that that is just
how i see my business
and you guys can do your business the
way you want to do
yours um and i think there's room for
everybody
if you don't know if you're creating
work that's good the public is going to
be the one who's going to express that
to you so
doing art shows really gives you a sense
of
how well your body of work is is first
of all
you're not going to get accepted into
the shows if you haven't been able to
create
a body of work that's striking that is
cohesive
in nature because that's what they want
to see on your submissions
doesn't mean you're always consistently
working in that same body
but they want to see at least five
images
sometimes 10 of a cohesive body of work
that's what gallery owners want and
that's what
show submissions also are looking for if
you get accepted into the shows
fantastic that's one indication
that you are where you need to be now if
you go to that show
and you don't sell anything um it could
be for a few weeks
reasons there was like what's that elmer
fudd
few reasons um there could be a few
reasons
as to why your work didn't sell you over
priced it
that could be possibly it second of all
it could be your selling skills might
not be
there yet and you have to work on your
overall presence on how you promote your
work
and the third reason could be that
nobody felt connected to your work so
even though you got past
the judges which is only really about
three people
the public still gave you feedback that
you weren't ready to be here yet
so that's my suggestion to you instead
of going off to galleries and submitting
your work
unknowingly if it's um if it meets
criteria
if it meets criteria yet you can
test your waters out by applying to some
outdoor shows which are a lot cheaper
and then if you feel confident enough
you can move to the indoor shows because
those are
much more expensive than the outdoor
shows
of all okay so i want to explain the
difference between
um the types of galleries that are
out there i'm of the mind where i don't
think it's necessary to
pay to show your work and so there are
a gallery it's not an official name but
it's a nickname that some people give
them
and they're called vanity vanity i don't
know why i have to be so
like perfect in my pronunciation so
vanity galleries
and a vanity gallery is a gallery that
you it technically you pay to play so
you can have an exhibition a solo show
in a beautiful gallery in like downtown
new york or downtown toronto
but you're gonna pay an arm and a leg
for it some galleries
will make um they'll change around the
wording
where it's a free show oh who wouldn't
want a free show
i'll take a free show but then there's
like a two thousand dollar
publicity package to that you have to
purchase in order to have that show
and so the problem with these galleries
that are
um some of them if you already have a
following
and your art sells for a good amount of
money and you just don't have a place to
show it
a vanity gallery would be amazing for
you
because you can pay to have it in this
beautiful gallery
and then you can send all of that
information out to your contact list
and you know that you're going to have
people coming into this place so
that in that sense great it looks great
it looks professional and it gives a
place for your buyers to come and see
your artwork in person
um but if you are a nobody yet and you
don't have a contact list
and say you have some extra money laying
around and you decide to pay two
thousand dollars to have this show
well the galleries already earned their
money they've already
gotten their money um so
they're not all that keen and promoting
you because
they have different artists book
throughout the year that are coming
in it's a lot different than just like a
regular
let's say commercial gallery that has um
a lot of artists that it represents
it makes its money by promoting their
artist and
selling their work there is no fee to
participate in a commercial gallery
um how that works it's a partnership
between
the gallery and the artist you've
decided to enter an agreement with that
gallery
that you will provide them a certain
amount of work
and that the gallery would promote you
as an artist and also sell your work at
a
commission rate which is standard
usually about 50
for the gallery and 50 for the artist
and i know a lot of you
are like ah i don't want to give up that
money
well brick and mortar cost a lot of
money
and i have to say like um
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our gallery still necessary i i'm
selling online i'm doing pretty good on
my own
but i also still like my relationships
that i have with my galleries
even though i'm not providing them as
much work as i should be but i'm blaming
it on the fact that i have a massive
commission that's taking up my
time um and also that i need to keep my
online presence going so
i'm i'm having a hard time uh working
with all the galleries that i do have
that's my own fault i took on too much
and i know i have
um i was warned about that but
we all make mistakes right i'm still in
the learning phase too
so oh what do i want to say what do i
want to say
look i'm copying again what i want to
say is
um galleries give you trustability
with your clientele so even though i am
selling online
there's a already an established level
of trust
with that client because they can see
that i'm working with other galleries
and usually artists that are working
with galleries are at a certain level
that it's all right not all right but
they feel
more comfortable paying you four or five
or six thousand
dollars for a very large painting
opposed to somebody who's never done a
show
um who has no website or uh no
trustability
right like how do how does that client
know that when they send you that money
you're actually going to send them a
painting that's
worth it so i do think
even though the world has changed and
online media
online social media has given artists a
much
larger platform to connect directly with
consumers and buyers
i do think there's still a place for art
galleries i think they're
necessary and i think they
really know their stuff and can help a
buyer purchase a painting
because that's what their expertise is
so
do i think that they're going to be
obsolete down the road no
and nor would i want them to be and
that's why i still
maintain my relationship with the
galleries that i work with
that's what i wanted to share with you
all today i hope that it gives you a
better
insight into how i came to have gallery
representation
and it gives you a little bit of a
lead-in way
on how to start your career about
exhibiting at shows and the difference
between your local community center
show and a little higher up
scale show so if you like this video
again comment down below and don't
forget thumbs ups are so important
and we'll see you hopefully on thursday
did i look in the camera again see i
would never
have made it as an actor
[Music]
you