How did you land your first gallery? I'm asking because mine was basically a scam

ok so I want to hear the real stories, not the polished ones.

mine: I got my first "gallery" because I was doing a market in Ruzafa, a woman bought two small vessels, and three weeks later she messaged me saying she ran a space and wanted to show my stuff. I said yes before I even googled her. Turned out it was a bar with one wall and a very good wine list. Sold nothing. But I learned how to hang a show in one afternoon and I still say "my first exhibition" about it, so.

how did yours actually happen? cold email, walk in with a box of work, someone's cousin, a group show you almost didn't apply to? and was it a real gallery or a bar with a wall? honest answers only

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Dani Okafor·1w

the bar with one wall and a good wine list honestly sounds better than half the "real" galleries I've walked into haha. at least you sold the vessels first, that's the actual approval.

mine was a group show I almost didn't apply for. juried thing, went through the whole submission with a portfolio that was way too safe because I was scared, got in, and the space turned out to be a converted church hall where the light was genuinely awful. but one of the other artists introduced me to a curator who later gave me my first proper two-person show. so the "first gallery" was basically a networking event with bad lighting and I'm still weirdly grateful to it.

the thing I keep noticing in everyone's answers is that almost nobody gets in through the front door on purpose. it's always a side door, someone who saw the work in a market or a bad group show and liked it enough to say something. cold emailing still terrifies me though. did the wine bar lead anywhere after, or was that the whole arc of it?

Mateo SerranoOP·1w

the safe portfolio thing hits me. I did the same for my first open call, curated everything to look "serious" and it looked like nobody made it. the pieces that actually got me anywhere were the weird ones I almost left out.

so the church hall was basically a scam too but with better architecture. awful light and a curator at the end, that's the deal. did the two-person show actually come from the work, or from you and the curator just getting on? I keep wondering how much of this is the work and how much is just being in the room.

Kasia Nowak·1w

Honestly a bar with one good wall is a real exhibition, I don't care what anyone says. You hung it, people saw it, and you learned the whole thing in a day. That counts more than a fancy room where you're too scared to touch anything.

Mine was a group show I almost didn't apply to, at a small cultural centre here in Kraków. Six of us, I was the only one with pastels, and I nearly didn't send the form because I was sure they'd look at my stuff and think "why is this woman here." They accepted me. I sold one small portrait and I think I floated home. Still my benchmark, sadly.

The "said yes before googling her" part made me laugh, but also I get it. Sometimes saying yes first and panicking after is the only way we ever do the thing. Did you keep in touch with her?

Mateo SerranoOP·1w

"still my benchmark, sadly" noooo, sad for who? one small portrait sold at a show where you were convinced they'd wonder why you were there. that is the benchmark. that is the whole thing.

the only one with pastels is the best part. six people and you're the odd medium out, that's not a reason they'd reject you, that's literally the reason they said yes.

also you floated home. good. that feeling doesn't come back at the same volume, so keep the memory of it close. and yes the bar wall counts, I'll die on that hill. good wine, bad lighting, no sales. a real show.