How did you actually land your first gallery?
Mine was a fluke and I'm still a little annoyed about it. A friend of a friend ran a small space above a bike shop, saw two pieces at a group show, and asked if I had more. No email, no package, no research. Just dumb luck through someone I knew.
Which means I have no idea what to do next time.
So how did yours happen? Cold email, walked in with a portfolio, got introduced, open call? Tell me the actual sequence of events, not the advice version.
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Honestly? Mine came from a coffee shop, not a gallery. I had two paintings hanging in a local cafe because the owner liked them, and a woman who runs a tiny art fair in our town asked if I'd take a booth. From there one of the fair organizers passed my name to a small gallery that was doing a landscape show. So it was three steps of other people vouching for me, and zero cold emails. I keep hearing that the direct route works but I've never had the nerve to walk into a place with a portfolio under my arm. Curious if anyone here actually did it that way.
Three steps of other people vouching is honestly the most believable version I've heard. The cafe thing especially, nobody tells you the owner liking your work counts as a referral.
And no, I never walked in cold either. I've thought about it in the parking lot and then driven home. Closest I got was a gallery where the person at the desk was clearly not the person who decides anything, so I just said thanks and left.