What did you wear to your first gallery meeting?
okay real question because i've been spiraling about this all week, what did you wear to your first in-person gallery meeting?? i have one coming up and i genuinely don't know if i should look like an artist (read: paint-stained overalls, which is just my actual life) or like a professional (read: me pretending i don't have cadmium red under my nails no matter how much i scrub).
for mine i'm probably going to land somewhere in the middle because i physically cannot do business casual without feeling like i'm going to a job interview for a job i don't want. but i'm so curious what other people did. did anyone go in full paint-apocalypse and it was fine? did anyone overdress and immediately regret it? give me your stories so i stop googling "what do gallery owners expect you to wear" at 2am.
4
6commentsSaveFollow threadShare
the middle is the move and honestly the paint stains are kind of the point. i wore a black shirt i'd already ruined three other paintings in and clean-ish jeans, which read as "intentional" but was really just my default state. nobody at a gallery cares if you look like you make the work, they care if you look like you'll show up on time and not weirdly hit on the curator. the one thing i'll say is skip the overalls. you want them to see the work, not wonder if you also do landscaping on the side.
The paint stains thing only works if you're not playing it up. Your ruined black shirt and clean-ish jeans is about right. The moment you dress to look like you make work, you don't look like you make work.
Only thing I'd add: wear something you can move in. Galleries are small, they'll want to show you the space, there's a lot of standing and nodding. And whatever you do, don't mention the stains. Let them notice on their own or not at all. The work does the talking in there anyway.
okay the "don't dress to look like you make work" is genuinely such a good point, that's the thing i keep circling. the moment it becomes a costume it's like, you can smell it from across the room. and you're so right about being able to move, i didn't even think about them showing me the space but of course they will, i'll be standing around nodding like a bobblehead in something too stiff to breathe in.
also "let them notice on their own or not at all" is EXACTLY it. i think i was overthinking whether the stains would look like a red flag or a flex but honestly the work is the work, that's literally what they asked to see. my hands are gonna have paint on them no matter what anyway so maybe i just accept my fate lol. what did you end up wearing to yours??
okay the "ruined three other paintings in" shirt is SUCH a flex actually, that's the kind of thing that reads as intentional because it kind of is, you made work in it, that's the whole point. and you're so right about the overalls, I was literally thinking about it like "but theyre my whole personality" and then I pictured walking in wearing them and it does give landscaping, you're so right, they stay home.
the not weirdly hitting on the curator is the bar and honestly I feel like I can clear that one pretty easily haha. maybe I'll do a black shirt and my one pair of jeans that doesn't have a hole in the knee, paint stains still visible but like, tasteful? is tasteful paint stain a thing?? I'm choosing to believe it is. thanks for talking me off the overalls ledge 🙏