Artist Seeking Art Gallery

Most serious artists want to exhibit and to be represented. For new or inexperienced artists, the outward appearance of the gallery scene seems to involve a necessary preparation process to become acceptable to a gallery. The new or inexperienced artists have no real idea as to how they might become one of the three out of ten thousand artists who desire and then get gallery exhibition and representation.

These artists must do their homework and encounter the frustration associated with what Tom Wolfe called the BoHo Shuffle - getting a gallery. Artists can be ignored or taken advantage of by individuals, claiming to be reputable gallerists or dealers, who only victimize them for profit. Artists who cannot see or understand this sometimes ambiguous and sometimes destructive process can fall victim to their own idealism.

The art gallery business is difficult. Art is a product from which profit must be made. For many gallerists - who may also suffer some delusions and fantasies about art and the art market - there may be a real loss of logical objectivity and business acumen. Any dealer or gallery however must maintain a rational appearance as a business.

There is some manipulation as in any business - manipulation of the media, manipulation of buyers, collectors and curators, etc. The greater this manipulation, within credible boundaries, the better the business.

An artist’s psychological processes are focused on a very different set of goals: creation, expression of the self, beauty, truth, exploration. Artist’s often idealistic and altruistic motives as their major focus. How do these two art world habitants communicate with any understanding? It is sometimes impossible.

The dealer must create an aura of importance around his/her self and the artwork in the gallery. The more important the artwork seems, the greater it’s price, the easier it is to sell and the better the profits. The dealer creates an atmosphere in the gallery - an atmosphere that suggests the highest of esthetics, principles, business practices. The gallery is a sacrosanct space above the rest of the world. Sterile, quiet, with aloof staff and inaccessible officers.

In the search for exhibition and representation an artist will encounter many different types of galleries. Some of these galleries can help the artist, some may provide little benefit and others may even be destructive.

The Commercial Gallery - by far the most desirable is the commercial gallery. A commercial gallery engages in sales as it’s primary means of income. In this type of gallery the artist is taken on and represented by a dealer. The dealer takes commissions on the sale of the artist’s work. The commission rate is arbitrarily set by the gallery. In general a commission is at least 50%. In the top New York City galleries the commissions for a new artist can be over 80% - the price an unknown artist will pay for exhibition in this type of gallery.

Getting an exhibition in this type of quality commercial gallery is difficult because is basically a closed system. The majority of these galleries are not accessible to the artist. Most of these top level commission galleries in major cities -New York, Chicago and LA - select artists from within a closed circle of associates and friends. At this level the art business has a club-like milieu. A small group of individuals, dealers, critics, curators and collectors control the business.

If you are not connected with these individuals socially you will not be able to exhibit in any of the top galleries. You will not even be allowed to approach the dealer with your work. The dealer selects new artists from within the tightly knit group. This is the major reason it is so difficult to get an exhibit in this gallery system. It has less to do with the quality of the artist’s work.

An artist may opt to approach a lower level, not so famous commercial gallery - you will not have to pay to exhibit there. The gallery does not have to be in Manhattan or LA. There are many good commercial galleries in smaller cities and resort towns. Because of the exclusivity of the commercial galleries, many alternative type galleries have grown up. Alternativegalleries include non-for profit galleries, cooperative galleries, artist-owned galleries and privately owned rental galleries.

The Non-Profit Gallery - is usually accepted in the art community as a decent place to show. It takes considerable effort and bureaucratic skill to open and maintain a non-profit corporation. Providing that the organization is adequately funded and is not requesting money from the artists who show, the non-profit can be a good alternative to the major commercial galleries. The problem with many non-profits is that the larger organizations are operated by people who emulate the commercial galleries. So their policies are just as exclusive - and they tend to exhibit the same type of art that you see in the commercial galleries.

The Artist Owned Gallery - can range from good to bad. An artist owned gallery is a gallery owned and operated by one or few artists. It can be anything from a tiny storefront on a backstreet, to a room in the basement of a church, to a huge
gallery that may even rival the commercial gallery at first impression. Artists are not usually running a gallery businessto exploit other artists. The gallery may charge fees of some kind to exhibit, but usually these are to cover costs and are reasonable. An artist owned gallery can be a fair place to exhibit. To determine whether it would be of benefit to exhibit consideration must be made on the individual operation, location, quality of the space, and professionalism of the organization.

The Co-Op Gallery - is jointly owned by the exhibiting artists, or a manager with artist members. Usually artists pay a fee to join and pay monthly dues. Artists contribute free labor to run the gallery and usually have a solo show once every two years. The sales made at this bi-yearly show are usually a result of the business brought by the artist as most co-op’s are not very good sales venues. The co-op provides social activities and can be a good thing for artists looking to get involved with a group of peers.

The For Profit Rental Gallery - is the lowest level gallery and some are essentially scams. They may be run by individuals who are exploiting the idealism, fantasies or desperation of naive artists to make profit. If these galleries promise promotion, sales, exhibits, fame and glory for a price - they are abject scams. Some take thousands of dollars for an exhibition. These galleries make their money by renting wall space, not by selling art work. There are exceptions to this rule, but most of them should be avoided.

Giselle Borzov