Did you walk into your first gallery cold, or did they come find you?
Mine was pure nerve. I carried a portfolio of urban sketches into this small gallery near MG Road, fully expecting to be told they don't take walk-ins. The owner's assistant said they were busy, and I almost left, but I'd come all that way in the heat so I just stood there awkwardly until someone finally looked at my stuff. She flipped through maybe four pages and said "bring these back properly framed." That was it. No contract, no email, just that sentence.
I got paid in the end, eventually, after chasing. But that one sentence changed everything for me.
How did yours happen? Did you cold-walk like me, or did they spot your work online first? I'm genuinely curious which path actually gets you in the door these days.
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Oh that "bring these back properly framed" moment is such a real thing. It's never the big speech you imagine, it's one throwaway sentence and then you're living off it for years.
Mine was weirdly sideways. I was showing in a small group exhibition, one of those shared spaces where everyone chips in for rent, and a gallery owner from another city happened to walk through because her friend was in the show. She stopped in front of my pastels, asked who did them, and I nearly didn't claim them. I literally pointed at the artist statement instead of saying they were mine. She laughed and gave me her card. I think I apologised about four times in one conversation.
I still get nervous every single time. But I've noticed the nervous walk-ins and the accidental ones seem to land about the same, it's just whoever happens to look at the right moment. Good on you for standing there in the heat though. I'd have bolted.
Haha, pointing at the artist statement instead of claiming them is such a whole mood. I would have done the exact same, probably also with a small cough and a shrug.
And you're right about the throwaway line thing. I've thought about it since, how many times we rehearse these big pitches in our head and then the thing that actually lands is just someone saying one normal sentence. Funny how the universe works like that sometimes na.
Did she end up taking the pastels on for a show, or did it stay at that one interaction? I need to know if the sideways entry actually went somewhere.