How an Emerging Artist Can Get Into a Contemporary Art Gallery

Working with a gallery is the point at which many artists’ professional careers begin. A gallery takes on the things an artist usually neither likes nor knows how to do: sales, negotiations with collectors, taking part in art fairs, building a reputation.

This is often where the difficulties begin. Some artists send the same email to a hundred addresses and get not a single reply. Some wait for a gallery to find them on its own. Some sign the first contract they are offered without working out what exactly they are giving away and what they are getting in return. All of this can be solved once you understand how this side of the market works.

Let’s take it in order: what kinds of gallery there are and what each one really offers, on what terms they work with artists, how to choose a gallery at your own level, what to send in the first email, and why most submissions never even reach a conversation.

Contents

• Types of gallery: physical and online
• Contracts: the terms galleries work on
• Choosing a gallery: how to find one at your level
• Submitting: what to send and in what form
• Mistakes: why submissions go unanswered

Types of gallery: physical and online

A physical gallery is an exhibition space with a permanent programme. What it does for an artist:

• it handles promotion, building the artist’s name and reputation;
• it takes works to art fairs and presents them to collectors;
• it includes pieces in themed exhibitions and group projects;
• in some cases it guarantees a solo exhibition once in a set period.

An online gallery works in a similar way but with fewer obligations. It may have no permanent space, yet taking part in fairs and projects is entirely possible. The main difference: online galleries take on the long-term promotion of an artist noticeably less often; more commonly it is project-based collaboration or placing works for sale.

Hence a sober conclusion. An online platform is a good way to start selling and to get your first confirmed sales — the kind we discussed in the piece on how to price your art. But you cannot build a career on online platforms alone: institutional weight is gained elsewhere.

Contracts: the terms galleries work on

There are several forms of collaboration, and the difference between them is substantial.

An exclusive contract. The artist cannot work with other galleries without the consent of their own. In return the gallery invests seriously in promotion: exhibitions, fairs, work with collectors, sometimes support for the production of works. Exclusivity can be territorial: one gallery in a country or region.

A project contract. Collaboration on a specific project or exhibition. The gallery promotes that project, but not the artist’s career as a whole.

Occasional collaboration. Taking part in individual exhibitions with no long-term obligations on either side.

What to look at in any contract: the size of the gallery’s commission, who pays for production and transport, who is responsible for insurance and the safekeeping of the works, for how long the pieces are handed over, who sets the price, and whether you may sell directly from the studio. That last point is the source of most conflicts, and it is best talked through before you start.

Choosing a gallery: how to find one at your level

The most common reason for a rejection is not the quality of the work but a mismatch. A gallery works in its own niche, with its own circle of collectors and its own aesthetic, and a good artist from outside that niche is simply of no use to it.

What to do before submitting:

• look at which artists the gallery already represents and compare them honestly with your own practice: by medium, themes, scale and level;
• study the programme over the past two or three years: which exhibitions, with whom, about what;
• find out which fairs the gallery shows at, which tells you its own level;
• look at the price range of the works: if it is several times higher than yours, the conversation is premature; if it is several times lower, it is not the place for you.

A critical assessment of your own work is not self-deprecation here; it is a professional skill. A list of five galleries you genuinely suit works better than a mailing to a hundred addresses.

Submitting: what to send and in what form

In the first email you are expected to send your application package: a portfolio, a CV, a bio and an artist statement. This is the artist’s passport: a set of visual and written information that represents the artist when they are not in the room.

The format should be compact but full of substance: you cannot give everyone a guided tour of your practice, and nobody will read an email of ten paragraphs to the end.

The second route that works is group exhibitions. This is exactly how many galleries size up new artists: they watch how the work holds the room, how viewers react, how the artist behaves along the way. If the pieces arouse interest and match the gallery’s aesthetic, an offer of ongoing collaboration may follow.

The same principle applies to open calls, fairs of emerging art and non-profit projects: it is a way of coming into a gallery’s field of vision without sending it a single email.

Mistakes: why submissions go unanswered

• A generic application package. The most widespread mistake: one file for every occasion that has not been updated for years. The result is an out-of-date portfolio sent on the assumption that “I’ll explain the rest at the interview”, and that is precisely why things never get as far as an interview.
• A mass mailing. An email with no addressee’s name and not a word about why this particular gallery is obvious from the first line.
• A mismatch of level. Submitting to a top-tier gallery at the very start of your career is time lost for both sides.
• Links instead of files. A cloud drive that requires an access request closes the conversation instantly.
• A price in the first email. A price list is not needed at this stage; money is discussed later.
• Waiting to be found. Galleries really do look for artists, but they look where artists are already visible: at exhibitions, in open calls, in professional communities.

And the main thing to keep in mind: the task is not to “get into a gallery” but to find the one whose interests coincide with yours. A rejection most often means a mismatch, not a judgement on your art.

Make a list of five galleries you genuinely suit. What can you say to each of them about why you are writing to that one in particular?