Lain York, presented to Untitled

March, 2006

An Overview from the Inside for Emerging Artists

Comments on approaching galleries by Lain York, founding member of Untitled and Fugitive Arts Center, and Curator of Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, TN.

Based on a presentation to Untitled Artists’ Group, March 29, 2006 

This is an overview of the commercial gallery system, a strategy for approaching a commercial gallery, what you can expect from a commercial gallery, and what will be expected of you. My comments will be limited to a “contemporary” commercial gallery such as Zeitgeist and they are based on my experience as a painter and a gallery representative. Many of you may have different experiences and may find that what you see out there to be very different. I think it’s very important to keep in mind that as there are a million differing notions of art, there are a million different gallery aesthetics and the way a gallery operates is certainly dictated by the local supply and demand. Everyone is different but for simplicity’s sake I will limit my comments to what we look for at Zeitgeist. I think that this is a very formal approach that errs on the side of caution. 

Always check out any commercial space before asking to submit work for consideration. Visit the space, gallery web-sites and the websites of that gallery’s individual artists, attend openings, and talk to artists. You may then call or ask in person whether the gallery is currently viewing slides or taking proposals and what the procedure is. Most galleries will ask for slides/cd’s, resumes, and statements; never send out a proposal without a SASE with adequate return postage if you want your materials back. You usually want to limit proposals to these four elements. If a gallery wants more they will ask. 

Images

You should have at least 10 images of current work and for the most part you will get a cursory viewing probably without a light table or a loupe. Any gallery will know what it needs and usually what it is looking for. If there is an immediate fit, the gallery will ask for more images and for you to bring a piece in. Ask a number of professional artists or professors about shooting and labeling slides and formatting digital images. There are many differing opinions. Count on having to submit slides. Digital images are okay but formatting is always an issue. Professional slides speak volumes to galleries that matter. Submit a focused body of work. If you are doing portraits, landscapes, and still-lifes, send images from one series and preferably the one you are working on now. Rarely will you get a studio visit and it usually not a good idea to ask for one. Zeitgeist gets 10-15 unsolicited proposals a week and despite what I’ve just said, some (although very few) of these folks get in to shows. Like any profession, it’s all right time right place. I spend a lot of time with artists on their statements. 

Statement/resume

In many instances a well-written statement adds an entirely new dimension to the work and can answer important questions that a gallery might want to know immediately upon seeing the work. It can be the difference between getting a show and not getting a second chance. See New American Paintings for examples of statement writing and resume format. Read as many statements as you can. Keep them simple; several sentences or one paragraph. Leave out the poetry and be as objective and honest as you can. This will take practice. You don’t need to worry about the items in your resume as you come out of school, just have whatever you’ve got formatted coherently. Once again there are a million ways to do it but New American Paintings has the most concise outline in my opinion. Keep it to one page initially. Once you build your resume, you can pick and choose. I spend a lot of time writing and formatting resumes for artists. 

What galleries are looking for in an artist.

An important thing to remember is that galleries need you as much as you need the gallery. This is especially true for local talent. A gallery in most cases will want a balance of local, regional, national, and international talent. Zeitgeist’s first responsibility is to the local artists. We have to have local pool to insure a local draw but we want to put that work in perspective with work from outside the area, “This is the local artist and this is how he/she fits into regional, national, or international trends.” 

Zeitgeist is looking or artists with a body of work: a series of pieces that are tied together thematically that have been developed over a period of time. It’s a good idea to have in mind where that particular series is heading if asked. A lot of this rolls back to having a good statement but where materials meets message; the type of material that you are working with or the way that you are working with that particular material reinforces or helps to drive home a particular theme in your work says a lot about the development of an artist. Artists certainly change styles and may work in a particular manner but what a gallery does not want to see is making the investment in a artists because he or she is doing one kind of work and then somewhere down the line, they are doing something completely unrelated. It happens and galleries can be accommodating but it is not easy for the gallery. 

However, the gallery is also not looking for anyone who is so locked into a particular style or theme that they cannot develop or offer some variation on. Using an artist like Richard Painter (a Gallatin native) as an example, one of Richard’s major themes is the fragility of life and the fleeting nature of time. There is a continuity in Richard’s work in regard to themes and he consistently finds new materials or variations in technique that make each show he does special or unique. It is very delicate balance of adaptability and consistency. This is what collectors are looking for. 

A gallery is going to have to make the determination as to how responsive the artist is going to be to the needs of the gallery. Zeitgeist’s summer introduction series Switchyard shows were very instrumental in figuring out who we could work with. Janice and I really like the artists we work with and need to have a close working relationship with these folks. Galleries will pass on some incredibly talented artists because they proved just too difficult to work with. 

Updated, professional resumes and statements as well as professional slides and digital images are incredibly important. Learn to properly pack, transport, and handle your work. Make sure that you get across to the gallery that you care about your work and that they should, too. 

You must look at this as a job interview. The art world is no different than any other field. The gallery must have work on time, properly framed with appropriate hardware, sealed or varnished, and signed and dated. In regard to presentation, never assume that a gallery is going to do anything other than hang you work on the wall. I do, however, spend a lot of time working with artists on presentation. 

Being able to speak about your work is also very important. Having good statements and extensive conversations about what you are thinking about with gallery representatives helps us to get your work across to patrons. You are not expected to be a sales person but patrons will want to meet you. It will be awkward and you may not ever get used to it but it is a reality. Constantly updating your statement is very useful here. 

What to expect from a gallery.

Many galleries may not necessarily have professional art world skills but the better galleries will (or should) have at least one person on staff with museum or at least art school experience. Observe how gallery assistants handle and store the work in the gallery. You can not assume that a gallery is going to make rational decisions at all times. These decisions are based on individual taste as well as economics. It can be frustrating in a lot of instances. As in any relationship there will be concessions. Once again, in many instances a gallery will pass on high maintenance personalities regardless of the quality of the work. You, as an artist, will have to weigh the decision of going with high profile fast tracking galleries and getting less personal attention. Is it worth dealing with difficult personalities that may be very adept at selling your work, getting you shows and exposure, and but are slow in turning your money around, having your work impounded by tax authorities, and you having to deal with general unpleasantness? These are the worst case scenarios. 

With a gallery, you the artist are getting the benefit of an association, that gallery’s experience, and its resources. With a showing, you should get a printed invitation to a current mailing list, an e-mailing to a current mailing list (both of which are difficult to maintain), access to that galleries collectors (which take a long time to cultivate), a professionally hung show, what amounts to space rental, gallery representatives’ time, and a reception. This is a strictly speculative deal for the gallery. 

Splits/pricing

A common gallery split or commission is 50%. Pricing is determined in most cases by the gallery. Zeitgeist will ask an artist what he or she needs for a piece and then, based on what we think we can sell the piece for, will double the price and adjust the retail price up or down and negotiate to get the pricing where everyone is comfortable. This will be the exception rather than the rule. Many galleries will simply tell you what they will offer your work for. The gallery wants to establish the artist. The idea is to place that first piece with the hope of placing a second and cultivating collectors for that individual’s work. A gallery with a developed collecting base will know immediately who they can pitch particular pieces to. A gallery will start your pricing low and then work up after demand is created. An important rule of thumb is you can go up but never back down. That’s the way to lose collectors immediately; a collector sees a piece of comparable size for less that he or she bought theirs for. With this in mind, the gallery must take into consideration how much that individual has sold work for in the past, where they sold that work (New York pricing is certainly a bit more than Nashville’s), and to whom. Another good rule of thumb is to have your work priced according to size. There are varying philosophies here and always variables such as materials, how old the piece is, whether it has been sold before. 

In many instances a gallery will give up 10-20% to designers and collectors. This comes out of the gallery’s split and not the artist’s. In regard to the commission, I firmly believe that Zeitgeist earns it. A gallery such as Zeitgeist in a market like Nashville takes years of hits to get established and to develop a collecting base. This traditionally has been the problem with galleries getting established here. There is a long list of galleries that have operated on the aesthetic that Zeitgeist has but they could not take the financial hits. Zeitgeist exists from sale to sale we do not make money with the gallery by a long shot. It’s pretty grim most of the time and as the artist gets his or her 50%, we get very little due to points we give away to collectors and operation costs. 

Zeitgeist is involved in what is considered a primary market; we sell work that an artist makes and are involved directly with that artist. We do not resell or broker work which is considered a secondary market. We rarely get calls from clients who have purchased a piece and want to unload it. We might work a “trade-up deal” with that particular artist for a more expensive piece in such a situation. Along these lines, we do not work with artist reps. Our primary focus is the exhibition and I feel that we must have direct contact with the artist to make things happen. Splits are another issue and that middle-man is a problem as I relates to most galleries. Artist reps are great for other types of galleries, artists that make big series or multiples of their works, and are represent by a number of galleries. A rep can also be instrumental in getting your work on book covers, cd covers, or images that are “mediated” in some other way. Zeitgeist is a very small operation and works with artists that are making one-of-a-kind pieces (for the most part). 

Other operating costs.

Sometimes we have to pay for framing. We have absolutely no money to do this. Having your work ready for presentation is a valuable asset. We have to pay for shipping to clients (artists are responsible for getting their work to us and getting it back. At some point we would like to be able to go half-way with shipping to and from artists). Crating and installation that I do independently for quite a bit of money is all a part of what a gallery provides to collectors for free. We are the face people see for selling your work and some of these collectors can be difficult. We honestly love the folks that have been supporting us but at some point we will be dealing with upper echelon collectors and they can be sticky. Zeitgeist is going to its first art fair (Art Chicago) at the end of April. That is a substantial investment for us. We spend a lot of time these days putting together proposals for corporate and private collectors and designers. For the most part these are done in PowerPoint and through a series of meetings with clients, we end up packing and transporting work on site for approval and in some instances, the work sells. This is all done on speculation with considerable expense to the gallery. 

Exhibition presentation.

Zeitgeist wants to present the work as objectively and as much with the artist’s intentions in mind as much as we can. In most instances, we use museum presentation and design elements to compliment the work but it has to be a delicate balance. I have a shop in which to build pedestals, shelving, etc., marquee walls might be painted differentiating colors, with the artist’s name and show title in vinyl letters applied directly to the wall. We also want to maintain a sense of fun whenever possible and will deliberately create informal or irreverent atmospheres for the work but always in collaboration with and with the artist’s sensibilities in mind. Zeitgeist is a unique situation for most artists. We hear this pretty consistently from artists across the nation. The gallery feels that it is a delicate balance putting the work in specific perspective to “invite” viewers in yet give the artists the space they should have to get their messages across. In these instances we ask the artists to focus what it is they want to say. Once again, that is why statements are important. 

Your initial entry into a gallery will usually be inclusion in a group show. From there you can hope for a three or two person show. Zeitgeist does very few one person shows. The ones that we do end up doing are usually of folks who we know will sell over a period of time (Richard Painter, Paul Harmon). 

Artists are on a two-year rotation, we try to get everyone a chance to exhibit a new body of work every two years. This is why we feel that we must keep our gallery roster small. Some folks work at different speeds; this is comfortable for some, others make more work than others and need more outlets. Zeitgeist asks for an exclusive in the Nashville area. We maintain consignment agreements with all of our artists but are planning in the very near future to have more in depth, signed contracts. 

We push artists to get into other cities. Representation for a particular artist is usually a 250-500 mile limitation radius. A gallery would rather you did not show in another gallery that was less than 250 miles away. It happens a lot and the galleries talk about it but it can get problematic. 

We do work with artists that do not exhibit regularly and include them in presentations to collectors and designers but for the most part, we limit our stable of artists (those who are on the exhibition rotation and are listed on the website) to those with an aesthetic that represents the gallery. 

Colleges/Universities

Approaching university/college galleries requires a more stringent sensibility. University types can be very sticky about formatting proposals. It is good to talk to as many artists getting these kinds of shows as possible and registrars and curators whenever possible. I would say that slide format and presentation would be the same (with a heavier emphasis on slides and needing to have at least 25 good slides) as that for an upper tier contemporary gallery but the statement and resume more considered. 

A pretty firm understanding of contemporary formal and content issues and contemporary criticism (i.e. art history) and alternative-space shows really helps in regard to statements. The “publication” entries on your resume will also figure in heavily. “Has you work been reviewed or written about, in what publications, and by whom?”  

Increasingly, artists have to consider whether to pursue a “gallery” career or one more geared toward academia (colleges/universities) and museums. This also includes artist-run or “alternative spaces.” One can certainly show in both commercial galleries and alternative spaces but it takes a pretty forward thinking gallery and I certainly think of Zeitgeist as being one of those spaces. Increasingly, there are more commercial spaces that are showing and actually selling this type of work. 

Usually artists who are going to spend more time getting university shows are very close to academia (have MFA’s and are teaching) or are operating way outside a commercial sensibility. This usually refers to work that is more conceptually based, ephemeral (consisting of less than archival materials), is edgier in content, and is not geared toward selling in general. This is not just limited to installation, performance, and/or video. Painting, ceramics, drawing, and photography are just as much a part of the contemporary vocabulary as “new media.” 

In making a distinction between university/college galleries and alternative spaces I think that increasingly the alternative spaces are becoming the proving grounds, functioning in the true avant-garde sense and that it is these spaces that provide the universities and college with shows. In a “farming” sense, artists come out of the universities generally reacting to commercial and academic trends, get shows in the alternative or artist-run spaces, and then hopefully break into the museum realm. In most instances these artists are going to be the ones to break into academia through adjunct and entry level teaching positions. I think the artist-run/alternative space has shaken up the academic hierarchy in an interesting way. Of course in the true sense of the avant-garde, these are trends and work that will eventually impact a commercial market. University shows usually require an artist lecture or panel discussion but also usually offer an honorarium. Once again, this is a very academic environment and you will be asked to back up you work and statements with historical and contemporary precedents and art theory. 

Alternative/Artist-run spaces

As mentioned earlier, artist-run/alternative spaces are becoming more “legitimate” and part of the system. Several years ago, the artist-run space Art Nexus in Atlanta became The Atlanta Contemporary Museum, an accredited museum. Nexus began hosting shows in 1973. It is not a new phenomenon but these spaces are having more impact. The internet has certainly fostered these spaces as well as the sheer number of artists entering the job market. There is a lot of competition for commercial and museum shows and more competition for collector and museum go-er dollars so more museums and commercial galleries are having to reckon with the alternatives that artists are providing for themselves. Commercial gallery operation is having to change as are the way museums have traditionally seen themselves and increasingly it gets back to a DIY ethic of maximizing resource and minimizing cost. 

Artist-run spaces, as implied by the title are run by artists as an alternative to what is available. In most cases these are very loose organizations. Everything is done on as little expense as possible to maintain maximum integrity. The Fugitive Art Center is fortunate to have a board consistently of museum/gallery professionals and university teachers who are all working artists. Affiliations to colleges and universities gives us access to resources, patrons (students and faculty), and many cases writers. 

Slides, resumes, statements, and especially SASE are required but in some instances we have gotten some totally whacky proposals that were immediately accepted on balls alone and were great shows. As mentioned earlier, these spaces are havens for work that has little commercial value and in many instances operates so far out of the mainstream, and that includes academia and the art world in general that you get folks from all over the spectrum. For the most part the folks running these spaces are your peers but it is best, like with any proposal, to ask what the guidelines are. Be prepared to drive the work. The Fugitives have a great time with incoming artists and artists from the outside love the idea of Nashville. It’s great showing them a good time while they are here and most importantly it’s a great way to network. 

Please keep in mind that these spaces have no budgets, in just about every instance can not provide insurance or shipping, and are doing the best they can. I feel that this situation has contributed greatly to the current vocabulary of contemporary art: an economic sense of materials, size of pieces, portability, general resourcefulness, etc. and it’s finding its way into the commercial gallery.