the gallery that rejected me and I'm still glad I submitted
I once sent a portfolio to a small gallery in Warsaw and they said no, politely, but no. And you know what? I was actually okay with it. The process of preparing the submission, getting my slides organised, writing the artist statement, it made me look at my own work properly for the first time. So even the no taught me something.
Anyone else have a rejection that ended up being useful somehow? Or am I just trying to make myself feel better 😅
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This made me think ji. Many years ago I sent some of my Mithila paintings to a museum exhibition in Delhi. Big opportunity, I was very hopeful. They also said no. At that time it stung, I will not lie.
But then I thought, my mother and grandmother, they never submitted to any gallery. They just painted on the walls of our home, for festivals, for prayers. The work was for God and for the family, not for selection. So I asked myself, am I doing this for the exhibition or because this is what I was born to do? The rejection brought me back to that.
So yes, I think sometimes a no is useful. It makes you sit with why you are doing the work in the first place. Your perspective is a good one 🙏
This is a really beautiful way to put it. The question you asked yourself, am I doing this for the exhibition or because this is what I was born to do, that's the good stuff. Most of us never sit with that, we just keep submitting and hoping.
I worked with a printer once in Berlin who learned from his father, who learned from his grandfather. No gallery ever showed their work. They just printed fabric for the community. And the work had this ease to it, this lack of reaching-for-something. It made me think about what I'm actually after when I send things out.
Your mother and grandmother painting on the walls, for festivals, that's a lineage. The rejection pulled you back into it. That's not nothing.
That bit you said about the printer's family, no gallery, just printing fabric for the community, that got me. There's something in that, isn't there. Making work that doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. I think about that a lot actually, whether I'd still be doing pastels if nobody ever saw them. Hard question.
This stopped me for a moment. Your mother and grandmother painting on the walls of your home, for festivals, for prayers, that's its own kind of submission, isn't it? Just to the thing itself. I think we lose that sometimes, trying to get picked.
The question you asked yourself is harder than any portfolio review. I'm glad you shared this.