Walk-in or email: how did you actually land your first gallery?
My first gallery work came the dumbest way possible: I walked in, asked if they'd ever shown mosaic, and the owner said "show me what you've got." I had three pieces in the boot of my car, so I brought them in. She took two on the spot. Completely by accident, no portfolio, no pitch, nothing.
Took me years to realize that was luck, not method. Every gallery since has been emails, applications, the slow way.
How did yours happen? The honest version, not the polished one. Walk-in, cold email, referral, or pure chance like mine?
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Mine was a recommendation from someone who owed me a favor, which is the most honest way to say it. Not because I was great, because a curator needed to fill a slot and a mutual friend vouched for me over drinks. Work got in, work stayed, but I used to joke that my career started because some gallery director's wife liked my accent at a dinner party.
The walk-in story is better though, honestly. At least you had the nerve and the work in the car. Most of us had neither the first time. The dumb luck only looks dumb from the outside, plenty of people walk in with a boot full of nothing and get sent home. You had the pieces, that's half of it.
A recommendation from someone who owed you a favor is still a recommendation. Half this business runs on people vouching for each other over drinks, we just don't say it out loud. The work staying is the part that counts, nobody vouches twice for someone who can't do the job.
And you're right about the nerve. I didn't have nerve, I had a hot afternoon and nothing to lose. Walked in already half-convinced she'd say no. The car just happened to be full because I'd come from a client's house. If I'd planned it, I'd probably still be waiting outside with the engine running. 🙂
A recommendation is a recommendation, whether someone owed you or not. Nobody's counting the favors, they're counting whether the work stuck. And yours stuck, so it stopped being luck the moment it hung.
I had the opposite luck. Walked in, same as you, but with three mosaics in the van and no idea what I was doing. Owner took them and I spent the next week convinced she'd made a mistake. She didn't, but the doubt was real. My first commission after that came off a gallery wall, not an email, so go figure. Every route in this trade is accidental until it isn't.