A Gallery Director's Point of View
Lucy- Apr 14
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 15
Dear reader, you may or may not know that I am the Co-Chair for the New Mexico State Committee of the National Musuem of Women in the Arts and was in charge of the subcommittee for our recent Artist Registry exhibition at the Turner Carroll Gallery on the famous Canyon Road in Santa Fe. As such I had the extraordinary opportunity to learn more about our artist members and befriend the Gallery co-owners and staff.
After the exhibition closed I sat down with the Gallery Manager/Director for a debrief and discussion of what we can do better if we do something like this again in the future. It was a broad ranging conversation and in the process I gained some very interesting insights into the gallery world.
I am forever grateful for my time with the gallery director so I could seen things from their perspective!!!
By the way, before this conversation, my experience with galleries was mixed. Many artists would say something similar, it's common for an artist to have a love/hate relationship with galleries. Artists need galleries to help sell their artwork and galleries need artists to create art but the power dynamic is often skewed in favor of the galleries leaving artists feeling, well, powerless.
From the artist point of view, the gallery holds all the cards meaning they control if the artist's work is seen and sold. Anytime someone is responsible for someone else's' financial situation the power structure is uneven. So the artists is constantly feeling pressure to make the gallery happy by saying YES to whatever contract the gallery wants the artist to sign, create any artwork the gallery wants to have, meet all the gallery's expectations including providing new work constantly and attending gallery events, and continue to self-promote to create demand for the work.
It's a lot.
But, from the gallery's point of view things are quite different.
Every gallery has to cover the hard expenses of running a business including rent/mortgage payments, art lability insurance, staff payroll and health insurance, utilities, maintenance, event supplies, taxes, advertising, and more.
And, just as in every other aspect of life, there are "ok", "good", and "great" galleries. The "ok" and "good" galleries to the work necessary to cover their business expenses and often stop there. In fact, my experiences with galleries were on that level. They do the "minimum" of keeping the gallery doors open sometimes literally only turning on the lights and opening the door.
Honestly I didn't know about "great" galleries until working with Turner Carroll.
"Great" galleries operate at a whole other level. Not only do they do the basics but they do a lot more including: leveraging every contact and opportunity to expand their collector list, take the artwork from their gallery to high-end art shows like Art Basel in Miami and the Dallas Art Fair. They join museum boards and advocate for their artists. They foster intimate relationships with advertisers to secure preferred placements, they hold lectures to educate the public about art and their artists, they place artwork in prestigious museums, they educate and train their staff on the artwork as well as how to sell to high-end art collectors, and they spend a lot of time with their collectors to get to know them and their art desires so they can match them with appropriate artwork. This type of networking also means late nights, meals and drinks, and other ways of connecting to the 1%. Plus they support and offer guidance to their artists while giving them time and space to work.
It's A LOT!
And it's darned impressive.
"Great" galleries are true advocates for art and artists.
However, they are businesses so gallery motivation is mixed between a passionate appreciation of art and the desire to make money. After all, if their work is successful and they are able to raise the value of the artwork they sell by heightening demand for it by high-end collectors then they earn more money.
Money makes the art world turn.
On a more personal level, I gained insight as to what one gallery looks for in the artists and artwork they want to represent. For example, they want to see excellence in one medium (oil painting) instead of good work in a lot of different mediums (collage, printmaking, and sculpture).
Also they want to see artwork the artists is proud of - their best work - and a "fully cooked" concept meaning no one-offs or experimental stand alone pieces. Instead they want to see a common thread between the artwork over a period time which shows the artist is growing and challenging themselves, not just doing the same thing over and over which ends up feeling like mass production instead of inspired art.
I confess that one is a little hard for me to understand but I think it means they want to see an artist consistently create (for example) landscape paintings of a certain region in different sizes and different views but they should all have a similar color palate and generally the same compositional elements - like they always or never include people or animals. This way if the artwork is popular and they sell 1 or 2 pieces they have other similar pieces to show collectors and hopefully be able to make a sale. All of which makes sense and makes me realize my artwork is not gallery-friendly. *sigh*
Galleries want their artists to be highly functional, not only create great quality artwork but also maintain a professional and clean website and/or social media presence. And they prefer artists be responsive (especially if a collector is in the gallery and wants more information or to negotiate on the price), to communicate well via calls, emails, and texts, and to make the gallery's job easier. For example, artists need to provide images and information in the exact format requested.
The Gallery Director suggested that all artists work in a gallery for part of their career just so they can understand the bigger art world and how it functions. If I were younger and had more "free" time I would totally be interested in doing that!!
Lastly, one final detail, galleries want to work with artists who are NICE and who appreciate the work that the gallery will do on their behalf. Which reminds me of what my dad always told me, "People want to do business with people they like". I know that is true for me!
Thanks dad! 😊
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