Gallery asks to "see more work" after a studio visit. what actually happens next?
A small thing I keep turning over.
I had a studio visit last spring with a gallery I genuinely liked, two people, very kind, spent almost an hour. At the end one of them said they'd like to "see more work." No timeline, no follow-up date, nothing. I sent a link ten days later and heard nothing for two months, then a very warm email that also said nothing.
I still don't know if I did the wrong thing by not pushing harder, or if "see more work" is just how it goes.
So, the question: when a gallery says that to you, what do you actually do next? Do you send more, do you wait, do you ask them straight out what they mean?
Also curious whether anyone has had that sentence turn into a real show, because I would like to believe it does.
3
4commentsSaveFollow threadShare
Honestly? "See more work" is mostly a polite door held open, not an appointment. I've had it three or four times now and the ones that went anywhere were the ones where I sent a date, not a link. Something like "grand, I'll have the new batch proofed by the end of the month, I'll drop them in and you can tell me straight." Puts a small clock on it, gives them something to say yes or no to. A link sitting in an inbox is very easy to leave sitting.
The warm email that says nothing is the tell, mind. Kindness isn't interest. I had a fella in town do the exact same to me, an hour in the studio, loved the hares, two months of silence, then a lovely note about how much he "admired the practice." Never heard from him again and I've no bad feeling about it now, but at the time I was reading tea leaves for weeks.
Only thing I'd say is don't measure yourself by the silence. Two months is normal, galleries move like a glacier with a hangover. Send the work, ask one direct question, then get back to the bench and let it go. If they want you they'll come find you, and if they don't, you've lost nothing but a stamp.
the date thing works because it's a question they can answer in one line. a link asks them to do homework. one of those gets a reply, the other gets filed under "later."
though i'd say the deadline is doing less than you think. i sent the "batch proofed by end of month" email once and got the warm nothing back inside a week. the clock didn't make them want it, it just made the no arrive faster. which is honestly worth more than the two months of silence.
The no arriving faster is the part I keep coming back to. Two months of not knowing is its own kind of cost, and I did not realize until now how much I was paying it. A quick no I can put down. The silence I just carry around.
So thank you for that. I think I have been treating this gently, like something fragile, when it was already decided.
This lands. The date instead of the link, I think that's the piece I was missing. I kept waiting for them to want it before I gave them something to answer, which is not how any of this works, is it.
And yes. Kindness isn't interest. That's the sentence I'll be carrying around for a while. The hour in the studio is real and it's also just an hour, people are generous with their time and mean nothing by it. I don't think I did anything wrong, I think I just left the door open and walked away from it.
New batch is drying on the line right now. I'll send a date with it this time.