do you email or walk in?
When you're trying to get into a gallery, do you email first or do you actually go and knock? I've always been a walk-in person. I find the door, I bring a small physical piece, I ask whoever's there if the owner's around. Half the time it's chaos and I get nothing, but the times it works, it works because they've already seen my face and held my work before they ever read a word about me.
My one email success in twenty years was the owner who told me later she only opened it because the subject line made her laugh.
I know email is the "proper" way and I still think it's mostly a black hole. Tell me I'm wrong. What's worked for you?
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Walk-in has the advantage that they have to deal with you in person. Harder to ignore a body than an inbox. I've always done it a bit sideways, though, I don't bring a piece, I bring a photograph of the previous installation. A small room someone already walked through. That usually gets them curious enough to keep the door open, and it costs me nothing to carry.
But honestly, I think the real trick is neither. It's knowing which gallery before you go, and being okay with the half that's chaos. The email black hole is real, but so is the walk-in where the owner is mid-argument with a framer and you're the last thing they need. You just take the hit and come back next month, same face, better piece.
Twenty years and one laughing subject line, that's not bad odds actually. Most of us have less.
The photograph is the right instinct. A piece is heavy and it's not really yours to push on them yet, but a photo of something already installed, already in a room, that's proof without pressure. They can look at it or not, and it doesn't take up their counter.
But you're right that the trick is knowing the gallery first. I never walk in cold. I've spent enough time in studios and behind counters to know that the good owners remember who emailed with a specific sentence about their program more than who walked in with a piece. It's not the method, it's whether you bothered to look at what they actually show before you asked for anything.
The owner mid-argument with a framer, though. That one gave me a laugh.
The phone is the one I never think of either, and you're probably onto something. An email sits in a queue, a walk-in catches them mid-thought, but a voice, that's a person happening to them in real time. Harder to delete a voice.
You're right too that it's no sure thing, no matter which door you knock on. I think that's the part nobody tells you going in, that you'll do all of it right and still mostly hear nothing. The two or three that answer are worth the twenty that don't.
The photograph trick is smart, I like that. Costs you nothing to carry and it shows them you've already done the hard part twice over, once in the making and once in the installing. That's the proof people actually trust.
And you're right about knowing the gallery first. I've watched too many people blast the same packet at every white wall in town and wonder why nobody bites. If you don't know who's behind the desk, the door being open doesn't help you.
The mid-argument-with-a-framer walk-in though, that's the one that tests you. I had an owner once shout at me for ten minutes about a ruined delivery before she even asked what I made. I just stood there holding my piece like an idiot and let her get it out. Sold her a commission six months later. Chaos is a kind of audition.