Working with Galleries

In my experience, working with galleries takes the anxiety and pressure out of trying to be a slick salesman. It is an incredibly comforting feeling knowing you have a gallery backing you and your work. It feels like they are part of your team. They do the work that most of us artists don’t really enjoy or are any good at, by selling and promoting our work. For me in my early career, they have been a guiding hand. Galleries create a perfect space for your works to be seen by collectors and new audiences. Well-displayed work will always look and sell better than pieces stacked up in a shed.

I have found the galleries I have worked closely with share the same passion for my work as I do and will also assist with installation, handling of payments, and shipping in the most professional way, as they do it all the time. The galleries take care of these to support us artists and allow us the time and space to make and produce the best work we can. Which in turn raises our value and worth.

I’m early into my artistic journey but even having a few represented galleries carries a strong weight for me and shows to others I’m respected in my craft and you should remember and buy into me now.

As an artist, before you contact a gallery you need a good understanding of your work. I feel like a gallery should be able to see what you make and have a clear understanding of your style and medium/ subject matter. In my early years, my work was very random; there wasn’t a cohesive style or theme traveling through. You need to take the time to develop and explore your craft. Once you believe you have a good selection of work you are passionate about, that is the time to reach out and contact galleries.

I found my first gallery through an emerging artist competition where you submitted works to be exhibited in a group exhibition. This was my first taste of a gallery, however, it was a while before I got another gallery opportunity. In that instance, I did approach them and I was successful in another exhibition. Then years later the first gallery got back in touch on a piece I made on Instagram, so they clearly had been keeping an eye on me and we began working together again. So it's a good tip to maintain a good relationship with every gallery you work with, as you might get future opportunities like me.

I’ve gained a lot from my interactions with galleries so far, but one thing I didn't know about was consignment notes. These are basically a contract between the artist and gallery stating that the gallery intends to endeavor to sell specific pieces of an artist’s artwork for an agreed sum, and if it does so how much it will pay the artist and when. Consignment notes are very reassuring to have in place, as you can get carried away with the excitement of getting a gallery and forget you need to have agreements and protection in place.

HOMEWORK

I’ve always done some homework on finding the most likely and suitable gallery for my works. For a sculptor, you can run through quite a few until you see a gallery that has any sculpture work. Having said that you can go into more depth and see what type of sculpture there is, as there are a lot of galleries selling traditional sculptures so I go for more contemporary. I was scrolling through an art opportunity site called CuratorSpace when I first saw the Bils & Rye Emerging Artist Exhibition. It was looking for emerging artists for an exhibition, so I contacted them through there.

I think Art Fairs are a handy place to identify galleries you think may be suitable for your work but do not approach them while they are showing at an Art Fair. They're there to sell Art!

My advice to artists seeking gallery representation is:

Research the intended gallery well.

Think about the gallery's viewpoint when approaching. They will be busy people and used to getting approached so think carefully about it.

Think outside the box to approach.

Go to the gallery exhibitions and become familiar with them.

Have large hi res well-presented images to show when sharing work

I hope this has been interesting and helpful.

thanks for reading.

Love Ollie