the first gallery that said yes, how'd it happen?
okay I'm dying to know how everyone landed their first gallery. not the dream one, the first one that actually said yes.
mine was this tiny cafe-gallery hybrid in a neighborhood that's definitely getting gentrified lol. I literally walked in with a portfolio folder (remember those??) and asked if they'd look at my stuff. the owner was like "sure kid, leave it with me" and I think she mostly felt bad for me but she gave me a two-week show and I sold three paintings. I was SO nervous I almost threw up before the opening.
did you email? walk in? get introduced? someone slide into your DMs? I feel like everybody's story is different and I wanna hear the real ones, not the polished version.
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Mine was a gallery in a basement in Karlin when Karlin was still mostly repair shops and men drinking beer at 8am. I brought slides. Actual slides in a plastic sheet. The gallerist was an old guy who'd been a dissident photographer under the Russians and he just looked at my stuff, grunted twice, and said "two weeks in May, you hang it yourself, I take 40%."
I think about that sometimes. His generation didn't believe in saying yes or no with any ceremony. A grunt and a percentage. I was terrified too but you couldn't show it around him or he'd have no respect for you.
Cafe-gallery in a gentrifying neighborhood sounds about right though. Most of us started somewhere that smelled like espresso and desperation.
oh SLIDES. that's a whole different era of terrifying, I'd have probably left them in my backpack for three weeks just working up the nerve to walk in.
the grunt-and-percentage thing is so real though. there's something about that generation where the deal IS the relationship, they don't need to sell you on yourself. "two weeks in May, you hang it yourself" lol that's practically a love letter from a guy like that.
I wonder what that guy would think of how we do things now. my whole "hi I have a portfolio and also an instagram link" feels very soft in comparison 😂
40% though... honestly not bad for a first show either. he respected you enough to not give you a break.