How to Get Your Artwork Into a Gallery

 

It’d be great if you could sell your art at modern auction houses, but it’s kind of tough when you’re first starting out. After all, you have yet to fully establish yourself as an artist, which you seemingly can’t do until people start buying your art. Though it might seem like a vicious catch-22, you can break out of it by getting your art into a gallery. The thousand-mile journey begins with a single step, after all.
Here are a few tips to help you do just that.
Find a reason for the gallery to check your work out. – Getting your art into a gallery is a lot easier said than done, to be fair. The first thing you need to do is figure out why you want a particular gallery to show your art, how it benefits them. Many artist requests don’t amount to more than “hey, look at my art.” Why should they take time to look at your work? If you can’t come up with a good reason, find another gallery.
Give the specifics of your most recent work. – You also have got to give the gallery the specifics of your most recent work that’s relevant to the gallery. That’s crucial. Briefly discuss how they fit in with the gallery’s art and the artists the gallery already shows, and why it does. Keep it short, and keep it simple. All this being said, you should also have the details for all of your work in case the gallery asks.
Know your prices. – If you want to sell your art, you need to be ready to sell it. That sounds obvious, but not a lot of artists have all of their pricing information together. This doesn’t mean that you need to have the specific prices, but a range, at least. For example, if a gallery typically sells work that goes for between $500 and $1,000, and you want your glass sculptures to go for $2,000, then you may want to find a different gallery, or offer work that’s more in their price range.
You have to do what you have to do to sell your art. Although auction houses might not want to sell your art right now, you can get your art into a gallery, where it will be seen at the gallery’s contemporary art events and possibly even bought.