[Michal Tkachenko]

GALLERY APPROACHES?
What are ways to approach galleries? Okay, assuming our website and everything on it is in place, what is the best way to approach or get into a gallery? An artist recommending you who is on the gallery’s roster is one good way I’ve been told. I’ve asked a lot of artists this question.
I’ve got some shows and gallery representation by writing out a very specific introduction letter stating I was having an open studio and really liked their gallery and certain artists in it and could see my work fitting in too. I printed out a glossy invitation to the event and hand delivered it with the letter.
I took a marketing workshop with French and Mottershead who have shown at Tate Modern and they said they found at the beginning they were having shows in warehouses with other artists and realised after awhile that it was only artists and their friends coming to the events. They sat down with a free small business initiative and pinpointed 10 top places (including Tate Modern) they would like to see their work, similar to Crista asking where we want to aim with our work. They then cold called the directors and asked for meetings! I couldn’t believe it when they said that. They were even shocked it worked. I guess artists don’t do that very often. Then they had a very specific and clever presentation when they did meet with them. They are a collaborative performance artist pair. They formed relationships with these people and then kept in touch and proposed shows as long as the specific people they had relationships with were still there.
How did you get into your galleries? How have you learned others have gotten into theirs?

 

[Michal Tkachenko]

I have so many questions that I am not sure will come up in this course. So I am just going to post them here.

ONE STYLE OR MANY?
I’ve had mixed advice on having a variety of styles of work on my website or in my portfolio. I get quite bored doing only one type of work. I am a fast and prolific painter and paint figurative, still life, interiors and landscapes. I’ve had the advice that I should keep to one stream and one style and that is what galleries want to see. I can see from a lot of major artists that that is what they do as well. Having to choose is tough. My landscapes are fast, make money, are relaxing to produce but are not a challenge. The figurative work I REALLY love alth0ugh I haven’t found a market that is very strong for sales. Any thoughts?