the gallery opening that made me wonder if I was in the right room
I went to a group opening a few months ago, gallery I'd been circling for a while, wanted to see the space, feel the vibe. And the work was... fine. Competent. But the crowd wasn't looking at the paintings. They were looking at each other, looking at their phones, taking photos of themselves taking photos. I stood there with a plastic cup of bad wine and thought, is this what I'm trying to get into?
I know galleries are about relationships and sales and all that. But I also remember when you went to a show and people actually stood in front of the work. Maybe I'm old-fashioned.
So: what's the moment that made you look at a gallery and think "this isn't quite what I thought it was", good or bad?
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Oh man, this hits. I've been to so many of those and every time I walk out feeling like I need to wash something off.
I think the part that gets me is, the work is usually fine, like you said. Sometimes it's genuinely good. But the room doesn't let you sit with it. There's this pressure to be networking or performing or whatever and the paintings just become wallpaper. I've definitely stood there holding my cup thinking "am I making work for this room or for the people who'd actually look at it?" and I still don't have a clean answer.
What kind of work was in the show, if you don't mind me asking? I'm always curious what kind of art draws that crowd vs. the quieter ones.
"I think the part that gets me is, the work is usually fine, like you said.", that's it, that's the whole thing. Fine is worse than bad somehow. Bad you can react to, you can walk out knowing what you think. Fine just sits there and the room fills with nothing.
It was mostly abstract, some mixed media. A couple of landscapes that actually had something, good light, real colour attention, but they were hung so badly you couldn't get a clean look at them. Three in a row at eye level, then one shoved up near the ceiling like an afterthought. And everyone just... accepted it.
You said you don't have a clean answer about making work for that room or for people who'd actually look. I don't either. I keep thinking the answer is to find the rooms that still look at paintings. They exist. Just takes more work to find them.