Galleries and Other Exhibition Venues

by Professor William V. Dunning

This section was taken from Advice to Young Artists in a Postmodern Era from Chapter 7 titled "Galleries, Portfolios and Web Pages." Written by Professor William V. Dunning, 1998, published by Syracuse University Press
http://sumweb.syr.edu/su_press/. Used with Permission.

Every art center has its own flavor of collective, or co-op, gallery scene. In New York the co-op galleries are not taken very seriously. The shows in such galleries never receive critical attention or reviews. Curators seriously shun them. However, Ben Mahmoud (an artist based in Chicago - ed.) explains that Chicago has an entirely different attitude. The co-op galleries in Chicago have taken their style from two excellent women's co-op galleries that were formed in the late sixties: the ARC (Area Resident Artists) and the Artemesia galleries. These galleries were unusually well run with a high degree of sophistication and professionalism. The quality of the work they showed was their only priority. Besides shows that featured their member's works, they invited other nonaffiliated quality artists to show in these galleries.

After the success of these first two women's galleries, some very good co-op galleries formed in Chicago that still maintain that same tradition of professionalism and quality. As a result, that city's art reviewers often make the rounds of these spaces and sometimes review the work. But there is a built-in limit as to how influential even these better co-op galleries can be. When an artist begins to get media attention or has work purchased by an influential collector, an invitation from a commercial gallery may follow, and, of course, these galleries tend to lose their best artists in this manner.

(Other)... kinds of art shows are the juried exhibitions that are staged by art institutions. Though such exhibitions may build a very impressive resume, they will likely be of little significance to the professional gallery. Mahmoud corroborates my experience when he tells me that young artists regularly show up at Sonia Zaks, his Chicago gallery, with very long resumes from such juried exhibitions. But dealers look only at the slides or photographs. If the dealer is interested, the interest will be in the work, not the resumes.

However, regional and national competitions do serve a function. When universities began to form art departments some years ago, the question arose as to how the work of the art faculty would be evaluated. Other fields had their process of peer review, such as publishing in journals and invitations to present papers. So the model of the juried art competition was chosen as the proper venue to determine peer evaluation. The juries were usually composed of other artists, and as a result many colleges and universities established their own juried competitions. Young artists who wish to establish a career in academia might wish to enter their work in these juried competitions. Search committees are very sensitive to success in this arena because they consider it an honest peer review, and the opinion of their professional peers is exceedingly important to most university art departments; this is reason for the emphasis on publishing in other fields. Published articles and books that are selected by their peers in "referred" journals and presses are the ones that count most.

Small art centers and museums are often looking for exhibitions that might not cost them much money. The curators of these institutions are often hard pressed to mount interesting shows with their small budgets. A young artist has nothing to lose by sending some good slides and a cover letter suggesting an interest in an exhibition. It might be a good idea to allow them to keep the slides if they wish. Though they might not have an opening at the moment, they might find a spot a year or two down the road.

The most meaningful of the...kinds of art shows ... are shows in private galleries. These probably offer more help to an ambitious artist than any other avenue. In New York the galleries with the most prestige are in a few areas of Manhattan: on Fifty-seventh Street extending both ways from Fifth Avenue, So Ho (literally an abbreviation for South of Houston Street), and Madison Avenue between Fifty-seventh and Eighty-sixth Streets. Recently, several "good" galleries have relocated from Soho to Chelsea, in the West twenties between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.

The studio loft and the ... kinds of art shows are intended to help artists land a gallery contract. But young artists should be aware that few galleries offer contracts in writing to unknown artists (Burnham 1973, 97). Contracts are generally offered only to "blue chip" artists. Furthermore, even if a young artist does have a favorable contract with the gallery, if the dealer abuses or even abrogates the terms of the contract, the artist still must decide whether to hold the dealer to the terms of the contract, which may jeopardize what could be a valuable relationship to the gallery.

A friend and former student, Bob Seng, who works for the Guggenheim Museum, tells me that one of the easiest and most accessible starting points for new artists in New York may be in shows staged by alternative spaces and underground organizations, which are usually financed by public and private grants. However, some of these operations have very clearly defined limits on whose work will be shown. For example, one space will show work only by artists living in New York City, and another will not show the work of any artist who has ever had a show in New York.

Another recent possibility for places young artists might be interested in exhibiting is in some noncommercial spaces, such as the Drawing Center, White Columns, and the Sculpture Center. These spaces have active programs for getting young artists' works before the public, and their shows are well attended and periodically reviewed.

A quick warning: do not fall for galleries that want you to pay for your show (other than perhaps to furnish your own brochures.) Some questionable galleries may even want to charge for hanging the show, guarding the show, or simply for having someone sit there to keep the gallery open. No matter how much they flatter you - and some are good at convincing you that you are a genius, because that is their business - an exhibition in such a gallery means no more to artists than paying to publish your own book through a vanity press means to writers.

No serious painter, critic, or collector is likely to view work exhibited in such a vanity gallery, and such showings can cost a lot of money. In Hiram Williams's words: "Beware of the gallery you must hire for a showing"(Williams 1963, 78). ... some of these vanity galleries may ask for an exorbitant 80 percent of the money from the sale of the work. Some of them may take many months, or even years, to let artists know when work has sold, and even then artists may have difficulty collecting their share (Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi 1976, 190). But many reputable galleries may behave in the same way.

A studio in the right location may even serve as a gallery for artists who would rather sell their own work than deal with galleries. Many curators and buyers are searching for the "undiscovered" and they will visit lofts and studios. But this kind of space in the right location is often expensive. The art world is a small one, and those who live in it seem to know most of what is going on in their city. Thus, any young artist who has had works in major art centers has probably already been seen. Some years ago B.C. (Bud) Holland one of the distinguished and highly successful gallery owners in Chicago, told several young professional artists that they should labor under no misconception: they had already been seen - and judged.

Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi explain that twenty years ago the average art gallery examined and gave serious consideration to only about 150 or 200 promising new artists each year; only one or two out of that number would ever be offered a spot in their stable (188-89). The best source for finding these galleries is The Art in America Annual Guide to Galleries, Museums, and Artists. The appendix lists the galleries according to state and city, with addresses phone numbers, and the name of the director.