September 6, 2008

Getting my art into Northern New Mexico galleries?

taos new mexico
Care F asked:


I am a Contemporary Hispanic Artist. I am about an hour and a half away from New Mexico galleries that I would love to be displayed in, such as Taos or Santa Fe. I am a self taught artist, outsider. I need more exposure than e-bay. Any suggestions?

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Comments on Getting my art into Northern New Mexico galleries?

September 9, 2008

Bottom Contributor @ 11:43 am

you need to network. I used to live around there the owners of the galleries are very pretentious and artsy. You also need to make sure your work is good enough, so get some profesional opinions.

September 12, 2008

helene @ 10:50 am

You will have to make appointments with each gallery to show your work in person. Better have plenty of it, too. If your work is too large to bring it all in physically, use slides or high-quality digital photos. [penydred, below, is of course correct that it should only be your BEST work. They'e not interested in how you've developed or improved over the years, or how your style has changed---they want to know if you can offer them a consistent product NOW. And put your strongest pieces first in the portfolio. These people are used to looking at work, and will decide very quickly if they want to take a chance on yours or not. They might decide after the first two or three pieces. But you do need to have a lot of work available, because if they do take your work, they will not take just one piece. It is difficult to sell work by a new artist if customers can't see several examples of that artist's work.]

It would also be a good idea to visit each gallery prior to asking for an appointment. If your work doesn’t look like it would fit in at a particular gallery, or if it looks too similar to one of their current artist’s work, pass those by for now and concentrate on the others.

P.S.—unless you are the luckiest artist on the planet, and your work is accepted by the very first big gallery you take your work to, you will encounter some rejection. Do not take it personally. Galleries are businesses. Their criteria for selection is not “How good is her work?” so much as “Can I sell it?”, and they already know who their customers are and what sells there. Most of them have inventory coming out of their ears already, and the decision to take on even more has to be made with potential sales in mind.

If you get any constructive criticism, again, don’t take it personally—but do take it seriously. I got some of the best criticism during one of my earliest rejections (coincidentally, from a gallery in Santa Fe :D), and by paying attention to it, I was eventually able to get into a gallery in New York instead.

Anyway, most of us have to wade through a lot of No’s to get to a Yes. Don’t get discouraged, and good luck.

September 14, 2008

penydred @ 3:09 am

follow helen’s advice of visiting the Galleries before you make you appointment.
when you go to you appointment bring;
your portfolio– take digital images, format them onto plain black or white background in photoshop, print as 8×10, place them in a slim line portfolio. edit edit edit..pick only your best work around 12 images.

bring with you a bio ( BRIEF statement, hist of shows and education, self taught info)
artist’s statement (your feeling about art, producing art, & influences, can be about a specific body of work)
If you are proficient with photoshop or have a friend you can format a photo or collage and your contact info take it to a photoplace and get it printed in the size of a greeting card and leave these behind after your appointments…

don’t forget to write a thank you note and check back…

keep in mind galleries can plan their calendar as far as three years in advance….