Studio Visits and Beyond: Making an Artist/Dealer/Gallery Relationship Work

You can taste it -- the prospect of a serious solo show. You've slogged away in the studio, been bulking the resume, participated in several well-received group shows, had a couple of modest but respectable solos, played the schmooze, and proved you're for real. You know you're good, you got the buzz, you got the recommendation, you got the referral, and now you got the appointment. Yes, this is the big one-- Max Pomposta, owner of Three Star Triple-A Fine Arts International Inc. Ltd., is coming to see you at your studio.

You've nuanced the room, primped the seating area, dusted and tactfully positioned the art with the good stuff up front, the ones everybody's taking about-- he'll see those first. You even bought a nice bottle of wine, just in case, and put it on the counter near the sink, visible but not too obvious.

You're ready as ever, right? Well, possibly. Max may love your art and it may be perfect for his gallery, but deportment seals the deal. You can never underestimate the value of the dealer/artist interaction and, assuming you survive that, your impending working relationship. Being honest and real is paramount, of course; you can't machinate yourself into a show. However, you can avoid certain indiscretions that will instantly kill a deal.

The truth is that Max doesn't always take on artists whose art he likes, nor do any other dealers. In fact, the overwhelming majority of dealers see more gallery-worthy art than they can ever hope to show. This means they have to draw the line somewhere, and where they draw it often depends on background noise, incidentals that may or may not be happening in addition to the art.

For instance, let's say you¹re a really good artist and you make really good art-- not just good-- really good-- but for whatever reason, your ascent isn't ascending quite as fast as you'd like and, as a result, you've copped a bit of an attitude towards the art world. You believe your art is being ignored, underappreciated, underexposed, or whatever, and you're not shy about letting people know.

No matter how good you are, even if you're great, even if you're right, you know what you're doing? You're insulting people; you're calling them stupid and uninformed for not recognizing your greatness. And that's not good. Nobody likes being called stupid. And no artist who calls a dealer stupid (by inference or otherwise) when that dealer visits that artist's studio will ever get a show at that gallery. If you've got prejudicial attitudes towards the art business, art dealers, art galleries, or "the system," work through them on your own, keep them to yourself, or go it alone because no established gallery will have you.

Basic tact, humility, and politeness are what make studio visits work. If you're good in social situations, that's a plus, but dealers make allowances here; they realize that cultivating social skills and being an artist are mutually exclusive-- as long as you're nice. You want dealers to think wholesome uplifting beautiful thoughts about you and your art, right? Of course you do, but they have trouble doing that if you give them a hard time. So don't. Artists who are easy to get along with invariably win out over those who aren't (assuming all else is equal-- and it often is).

Also, go easy on directives; too much instruction never works. Let's say you tell a dealer she's not looking at your art right or she's missing its true meaning. Uh-ohS boo-boo. First of all, your art has to speak for itself. You're not eternally there to lobby on its behalf. Second, if a dealer has trouble with your art, that's usually your problem, not theirs. They spend their lives looking at art and they're really good at it, so if they're perplexed, probably everyone else will be too. Then again, your art might be fine, but not for that dealer (or more accurately, that dealer's client base-- assuming you don't get similar reactions from other dealers too). Remember that dealers survive by selling art, so in addition to understanding and liking your work, they have to decide whether they can sell it, how they can sell it, how much they can sell it for, how many they think they can sell, and whether that means enough money to pay next month's expenses.

OK. So you get a show. A critical part of any successful gallery relationship is that it be a joint venture between you and the dealer, 50/50 from start to finish. When a gallery decides to show your art, they automatically oblige themselves to put out a big fat chunk of time, money, labor, square footage, thought, and overall positivity into you and your work. And you've got to give exactly that much back. Don't think "My art's more valuable than the effort you're putting into it," or that all you have to do is give them art and you're done because without it, they're nowhere. They won't be nowhere. You'll be nowhere; they'll be somewhere else.

You also have to be loyal, cooperative, timely, and professional in terms of your obligations and responsibilities throughout the course of the show, the consignment arrangement, or the duration of your contract. This is a business relationship; you are now dealing with professional people. You must fulfill your commitments and represent the gallery the way they represent you. It's basic logic. If you short sheet a gallery that's hawking your art, not only do you make it harder for them, you make it harder for you. You make them look bad; you make you look bad.

More helpful hints for studio visits and beyond:

* Be patient, not pushy. Don't demand action or complain about the shows you haven't gotten. You take your best shot, you sit back and wait; either it happens or it doesn't.

* Figure out why your art is ideal for whatever dealer visits you. Be prepared to explain that match and to answer any questions in that regard.

* Never argue a commission split. Learn why dealers deserve their percentages on your own time, not theirs. (Believe me, they deserve them.)

* Sobriety is good.

* "Erratic," "melodrama," "demand," "immediately," and "emergency," are not words dealers like to think about or hear.

* Don't show sold or otherwise unavailable work during a studio visit-- especially if it's at the top end of your output. If a dealer wants it, but can't have it, you've got a problem.

* Try not to brag or make claims about yourself or your art such as "I'm the next (fill in the blank with the name of a white hot artist) and you'll regret it if you don't take me on."

* Stay away from challenges or dares like "I dare you to like my art," "I dare you to understand my art," "I dare you to work with me," and so on. Dealers rarely take dares.

* Don't bug dealers, call them every other day, ask how things are going, ask whether you're getting a show, ask how your show is going, ask if anybody looked at your art, what they said, what their facial expressions were, what their socks looked like, how close they came to buying, and on and on and on.

* Sex is not a career advancement strategy; bed dealers for entertainment purposes only.

Thanks to Brian Gross of Brian Gross Fine Art and Charles Linder of Linc Art for their generous assistance.