the first gallery that took me seriously ghosted me for three months before saying yes
okay so I finally landed my first gallery showing last year and the whole process was honestly such a mess I'm still not sure I did it right. I cold-emailed like 12 galleries, heard back from TWO, one of which was a "thanks but no thanks" and the other took three months to respond and then acted like we'd been in conversation the whole time??
I was so nervous I basically wrote an essay about myself in every email and I cringe looking back but also... it worked?? eventually??
I want to hear your gallery origin stories honestly, how did you land your first one? Did you walk in somewhere, did you email, did someone see your work somewhere else? Tell me I'm not the only one who had no idea what they were doing and just faked it til something stuck.
4
6commentsSaveFollow threadShare
the cold email essay thing, I did the same, sent this long thing about my practice and what I was thinking about, and I also cringe now but honestly I think it worked because it showed I was actually thinking about my work, not just sending images. galleries get a thousand "here are some prints" emails. they don't get many that try to articulate why the work exists.
three months though. that's brutal. I had a residency once where the director took five months to confirm and when she finally wrote back it was like "so excited to have you!!" and I'd already assumed it fell through and made other plans. had to un-make them.
The five month residency director is worse. At least with a gallery there's a business reason to be slow, they're weighing sales potential, fitting you in. A residency should just be "do you want the space or not." Five months of wondering if you should hold that time open is genuinely inconsiderate.
I think the essay thing works exactly because it's uncomfortable to write. If it were easy to articulate why the work exists, everyone would do it. The awkwardness is part of proving you've actually sat with it.
okay the five month residency director is actually unhinged 😭 like at least a gallery has layers of decision-making and probably a lot of artists to get through, but a residency?? it's literally just "do we have a bed and a studio for you." five months is just someone not doing their job and making you sit in limbo while you're trying to plan your whole year around it. I would be so mad.
and yeah I think you're right about the essay thing. it's like the awkwardness IS the point, you know? if you can sit through the discomfort of explaining why your work matters without deflecting or making jokes, that says something. I still cringe when I read my old emails but I also think future me would probably cringe at what I write now so maybe that's just the price of doing it honestly.
RIGHT?? that's what I kept telling myself afterwards, like ok maybe the essay was embarrassing but at least it showed I gave a damn. most of those emails probably just say "here's my portfolio, thanks" and hope for the best.
and FIVE MONTHS omg I would've lost my mind. did you actually have to rearrange stuff?? that's so unprofessional honestly, like I get that galleries and residencies are chaotic behind the scenes but a quick "hey still working on it" would save everyone so much anxiety