ok who's actually had a cold email to a gallery WORK. not a "they replied a month later saying send more" that goes nowhere. like, a real show, a sale, a relationship.
i've sent maybe 40 cold emails in my life. got 3 replies. 1 meeting. zero shows. feel like i'm doing it wrong or it's just a numbers game that i lose at.
tell me i'm wrong or tell me your one fluke that worked
The one that worked for me came through a curator, not directly to a gallery. I'd done a group show in Berlin, nothing huge, and the curator had a connection to a gallerist in Munich. She passed my name along, I sent images, and that turned into representation for about six years.
But the cold email to a gallery directly? Never got me anywhere either. I think the problem is structural, galleries get hundreds of those. Even if your work is good, you're asking someone to take a risk on a complete unknown with no social proof. The ones that break through usually have some thread already, someone they trust mentioned you, or they saw your work somewhere, or you share a history they recognise.
It's not that it can't work. It's that the odds are worse than you think, and the ones who say "just keep sending them" are usually selling something. The real way in is usually a referral, or a smaller space first, or a residency that puts you in front of people. Slow and boring and not what anyone wants to hear.
yeah the "thread already existing" thing is the part that gets me. like i know networking is the real job but i'm bad at it and i keep hoping the work will just do the talking lol. naive maybe
the curator pipeline makes so much more sense though. did you meet them through the berlin show or was that a connection you already had?
Honey, I'm gonna tell you something and it might not be what you want to hear. I never cold-emailed a gallery a day in my life. What worked for me, what's always worked for us, is somebody knowing somebody who knows you. My granddaughter put my quilts online and a woman from Atlanta saw them and told a curator she knew. That's how it happened for me.
Not saying cold emails can't work. But 40 with one meeting and nothing to show for it... that sounds like you're throwing seeds on hard ground. Might be time to find the people who already move in circles you're in, or get your work in front of folks who'll talk about it for you. Sometimes the thing that opens the door ain't a letter. It's somebody who knows your name already.
What's your work like? What kind of galleries you reaching out to? Might be simpler than you think.
yeah no you're right lol. i think i knew that on some level. the "somebody knowing somebody" thing just feels so opaque when you're not from that world, like there's a door i can't see, let alone knock on.
your granddaughter posting the quilts is genuinely how stuff seems to happen now. internet randomness + a real person who gives a shit. maybe that's the actual play.