Getting your art into galleries

This digest is brought to you by Patrons MCAA. Patrons is a full-suite art advisory firm that helps private and corporate art collectors with diversifying their wealth through art collection, appraisal, packaging & transportation, storage, insurance, maintenance and restoration.

You are a really good artist. Your work evokes intriguing emotions out of everyone who sees it. You have been cooking something new in your studio. You have just finished a masterpiece and you are really excited about your new creation. You posted it to your Facebook page and Instagram but that only yields a few likes and thumbs up. You begin to wonder why and doubt your if you judged your work’s value too soon.

Artist: Victor Ehikhamenor | Title: In search of what I’m looking for | Medium: Epoxy on canvas | Dimensions: 30” x 15” | Available on request

You would agree that every masterpiece deserves great exposure. As an artist, you wonder how you can be the talk of the collecting community. A simple way to do this is to get representation by a gallerist. Wondering how to go about this? This digest will guide you through.
Curate your online portfolio
In today’s world, the most effective way to showcase your art and body of work is by having a website or a social media account you are consistent with. The Internet has presented a plethora of opportunities for artists to take advantage of. Owning one’s website is one way, social media platforms is another.

Let’s start with the basics, social media accounts. As an artist, you have to own an Instagram account even if you cannot afford to own a website right now. Because of how visual Instagram is, your contemporaries are taking full advantage of it to promote their works and give studio tours to their followers. In recent years, some artists have attained critical fame and have had their careers catapulted just off the back of Facebook and Instagram.

Be it on your social media or on your website, ensure your uploaded photos and videos are of high quality with detailed description of each work, your bio descriptive, your posts consistent, your contact information clearly visible, and you show your personality on your page.

With billions of people on social networks, you may want to consider spending some marketing budget on ads to promote your page with the objective to either grow your following on Instagram and/or Facebook.

Personal branding
Position yourself to be discovered. Your personal brand as an artist is yourself. Knowing this, it is important how you are perceived by gallerists and the collecting community. A gallerist can spot good artists and will get excited about your work. Such a gallerist will be willing to work with you to improve on your personal and professional branding. However, to be represented, you must be found ready and coachable. Show that you are willing to go the long mile when you reach out, or are reached out to by gallerists.

Have A clear style
Whilst you may be influenced and inspired by great artists and also by your peers, through experimentation, you will have to find your own style of your art. You want to ensure that you are unique and identifiable by the collecting community. Gallerists love to discover artists who puzzle their minds because they know the collecting community is always looking out for something new with a fresh perspective.

Create your work in collections
Emerging artists may find this challenging as they are still on a journey to finding their style or direction for their art. With that said, creating a collection is undeniably worthwhile. Consider creating a 5-12 pieces collection that tells a powerful story your audience would want to see, feel, and ponder over in different frames. This will help you present your work cohesively. Your collection avails you the wonderful opportunity to organize your thoughts in frames, piece by piece.

Speak confidently about your work
A beautiful piece of art is better expressed with a powerful story. When you display your works in a gallery, collectors will not only be drawn to it by its beauty or by how puzzling it comes across, but by the powerful story they tell. You must confidently describe your work to them. When called upon to give an artist statement, you want to speak passionately about your work because it helps the gallerist to easily sell your works to interested collectors.to work with artists who are reliable, consistent, and can handle simple logistics.

Pricing
If you struggle with pricing your piece of art, you are not alone. Gallerists are professionals in pricing artworks because this comes naturally with the job that they do. However, before you get the opportunity to work with a gallery, one of our previous digests was dedicated to how you can price your work as an artist.

I hope this digest has been insightful for you.