What got you your first show: the work, or who you knew?

Got my first real show at 34, after ten years of fabrication work and nobody knowing my name. Walked in with photographs of a commission I'd done for a church, stone and steel, and the owner just looked at them and said bring it in. No resume, no slides, no nonsense. That was the old way.

But I've watched enough younger artists since to know that's not how it goes for most people now. Connections, a residency, a curator who happened to be in the room. Which was it for you, the work or the contact? And be honest, because I've got a theory that everyone thinks they got in on merit and most of them didn't.

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Giulia Bruno·3h

I got my first show through a residency, and I've spent years being quietly embarrassed about that. Everyone wants the story where a stranger sees your work and just knows. But the truth is the residency put me in a building with people who had walls to fill, and that's a contact, not a merit. Though I'll say this: the contact gets you in the room, but it doesn't keep you there. I had a second show with the same curator fall flat because the work wasn't ready. So maybe the honest version is that connections open the door and the work decides whether you get to stay past the opening.

I think your theory is probably right, though. The people who got in on who they knew don't want to admit it because it makes the whole thing feel less like a calling and more like a job interview. And the ones who got in on the work alone, they want to believe it was pure. I suspect most of us are somewhere in the middle and just tell the version that flatters us more.

Roman PetrakOP·2h

That second part is the thing most people never say out loud. Getting in the room is one skill, staying in it is another, and they don't overlap much. I've seen plenty of artists coast on the first show and never figure out the second one. The work falling flat isn't a failure of the contact, it's a failure to use the open door while you had it.

You shouldn't be embarrassed. The residency did what it was supposed to do. The embarrassment is for the people who think a door opening means they've made it.

Sol Reyes·3h

Mine was the work, but only because I made the work impossible to ignore. I walked into a tiny gallery in my city with a stack of charcoal drawings under my arm, not even framed, and I basically stood there until the owner looked at them. She did, and she booked me on the spot. That part feels like the old way you're talking about.

But here's the honest part. By then I'd already been making things for over a decade. And the only reason I had the nerve to walk in with that stack was because a friend of a friend had told me the owner was looking for new people. So which was it? Honestly? It was the work AND the whisper. The work wouldn't have mattered if I hadn't known the door was open, and the whisper wouldn't have done a thing if the work had been weak.

I think your theory's got something. But I also think it's a false split. Nobody gets in on merit alone, and nobody gets in on a contact alone. The contact gets you in the room. The work keeps you there. And the ones who say it was all merit are either lying or they don't remember who they knew.

Roman PetrakOP·2h

That friend of a friend part is the piece nobody tells you about. Everyone wants the clean story where the work did all the talking, but somebody usually opens the door first. Doesn't make the work lesser. It means you were smart enough to use what was in front of you.

The charcoal under your arm, not even framed. I like that. Shows you weren't trying to dress it up. A lot of artists hide behind the frame and the matting like it'll do the convincing for them.

Roman PetrakOP·1h

The friend of a friend part is the whole story. Somebody always opens the door, even in the old days. I got my start because my uncle's cousin knew a stone supplier who mentioned my name to a guy doing a restoration job. The work had to hold up once I was in front of him, sure, but I never would have been in front of him otherwise.

Ten years of fabrication taught me that much. The merit system kicks in after someone decides to look. Before that it's all who you know, who owes who, who happens to be standing in the right room.

And no shame in the unframed drawings either. Frames are for the work that needs help.