Graeme Smith

Make Exhibitions Work Graeme Smith

Do you have a career vision?Most artists tend to focus on an individual painting. An exhibition is a collection of those paintings. But what if the focus was on the exhibition. And it was just one of a series of exhibitions?Then there would be a different mind-set wouldn't there?How you approach exhibitions is an extension of this thinking. Do you do that?Then a career can be an ongoing stream of exhibitions. Be pro-active about generating this income stream if you know what to do. A successful artist should have this knowledge. Can you identify the characteristics necessary for a sell-out exhibition?Most artists do not even believe this is possible so they don't think about it!But it shouldn't matter what you paint for artwork doesn't sell itself. If it did, you'd be able to hang your work anywhere and people would buy it. There needs to be a correlation between what you do and how it is sold. But obviously something is done to make sell-out exhibitions happen. But just one artist having a sell-out exhibition doesn't prove anything. That depends on special knowledge, contacts, opportunities they have. It's people like you who have to have the sell-out exhibitions. If you are somewhat skeptical that's understandable. The key element is people willing to buy your work. Then these people can be leveraged into major career momentum. You need sales and marketing strategies major galleries give main artists. Not all galleries do this. For MOST do NOT KNOW what to do and you must assume this is likely. Sales in a well-known gallery are quite public. That is a launching pad for continued success and sustained artistic career. So you need a marketing campaign aimed at the gallery of your choice. This is not necessarily what most other artists say you should do. BUT someone has to do it. Otherwise you will be exhibiting at a gallery that doesn't know what to do. There's a lot of day to day stuff in any profession, including artist. Meeting people, phone calls, enter competitions, framing, finances, etc. The more successful you are the more of it there is. You do all this yourself initially but eventually you need an agent. But by then you'll know exactly what you want them to do. So instead of the agent telling you what they want. You'll find one who does what you want.