Search

I got my first real representation sideways. A group show in a converted factory space in Plagwitz, maybe 2003, and the gallerist spent the whole evening in the corner eating the cheap sausages and barely looked at the walls. I assumed nothing. Three weeks later she called and asked if I had more work in that direction. I had four canvases and a lot of nerve, so I said yes. That was it. No portfolio, no polite emails, no follow up. I have never once got a gallery by sending an application cold, and I have sent many. So I am curious how it went for others: what was the actual door that opened the first time? A friend who knew someone, a studio visit, a juried show, a bartender, your mother's neighbour? And was it luck or did you do something deliberate that worked? Tell me the real version, not the tidy one you put in the bio.

i'll go first. one place told me they "handle all the marketing" and then asked me to pay for the framing, the postcard run, AND a "co-op advertising fee" before a single piece sold. i asked what the gallery's cut was and got a paragraph about "shared investment in your career." so what's the red flag that made you back out? the 50/50 split that was actually 70/30 in the fine print? the "we only take artists who are serious" line? the contract with a 3 year exclusive and no out clause? one i know people argue about: asked for money upfront. some of you will say that's normal for juried shows and some of you will say run. would love to hear which side you land on and why.

I'll go first. I was 34, had no resume anyone cared about, and I loaded a 90 pound stone piece into the back of a truck and drove to the guy's space unannounced. He came out, looked at it a long time, and said leave it here. That was the whole interview. Took three months before he actually hung anything. I've done it the other way since and it was worse. Emails get filed. The work doesn't. So. How did you get your first one. Walk in, email, somebody's cousin, a juried show that turned into something. Tell me the actual story, not the polished version.

Our library does a little community show every spring, nothing juried, you just sign up for a 4 foot panel and hang whatever. I'd been planning to put in the marsh piece I did in October, the one that actually came out the way I wanted. I hung two others instead. Both were ones I nearly painted over. A small still life of the kids' cereal bowls from last summer that I hated for months because the light is flat and the left bowl is honestly a little lopsided, and a scrappy plein air thing from the parking lot behind the rink in February where I got the cold sky right and the tree wrong. I don't fully know why. I think I'm tired of only showing the ones that behave. The cereal bowls especially, my 11 year old walked past the table while I was varnishing it and said oh that's the actual morning. Anyway it's up until the 22nd. I keep catching myself wondering if anyone will say anything about them, which is a stupid way to feel about two paintings I almost threw out. The marsh one can go to the fall fair.