How to Grow a Gallery Relationship

Growing a gallery relationship and advancing your career as a contemporary artist requires a strategic approach and consistent effort. Building lasting relationships with galleries can be essential for success.  Here are some steps you can take to foster gallery relationships and enhance your artistic career:

1. Do your research: Before you approach any galleries, it’s important to do your research and find ones that are a good fit for your work. Consider the gallery’s location, size, and focus. You want to find a gallery that will be able to properly represent your work and help you reach your target audience. Begin by researching galleries that align with your artistic style, medium, and career goals. Look for galleries that exhibit similar artists and have a reputation for promoting emerging talents.
   Attend Gallery Openings and Art Events: Visit gallery openings, art fairs, and other art events to familiarize yourself with the local art scene and establish connections.
   Engage with gallery owners, curators, and fellow artists to build relationships and learn about potential exhibition opportunities. After you selected them, cultivate Personal Relationships. Building personal relationships with gallery owners and curators can significantly enhance your chances of representation. Attend artist talks, workshops, and networking events to connect with industry professionals on a personal level. Building trust and rapport can lead to long-term gallery relationships.
   Maintain Professionalism: Approach gallery relationships with professionalism and reliability. Be punctual for meetings and deadlines, communicate effectively, and honor agreements. Demonstrating your commitment and professionalism will help galleries see you as a reliable and serious artist.
   Remember, building gallery relationships and advancing your career as a contemporary artist takes time, perseverance, and dedication. Stay committed to your artistic practice, continuously promote your work, and seize opportunities for growth and exposure.
2. Be prepared to present your work: When you do approach a gallery, be prepared to present your work in a professional manner. This means having high-quality images of your work, as well as a well-written artist statement. You should also be able to answer any questions the gallery may have about your work. Develop a Professional Portfolio: Prepare a high-quality portfolio that showcases your best artwork. Include an artist statement, CV/resume, and high-resolution images of your work. Your portfolio should be visually compelling and provide comprehensive information about your artistic practice. Submit Your Work: Submit your portfolio and exhibition proposals to galleries that you have identified as potential partners. Follow their submission guidelines and tailor your application to their specific requirements. Be prepared for rejection and maintain a persistent and professional approach.
3. Be persistent: It may take some time to find the right gallery for you. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get a yes right away. Keep submitting your work to galleries and eventually you will find one that is a good fit.
4. Be supportive of the gallery: Once you have a relationship with a gallery, it’s important to be supportive of them. This means attending their events, promoting their shows, and buying work from other artists they represent. By being supportive of the gallery, you are showing them that you are a valuable asset to their team.
5. Be yourself: The most important thing is to be yourself and to create work that you are passionate about. If you do that, you will eventually find the right gallery for you and you will be on your way to a successful career.
6. Connect and cultivate personal relationships with curatos, art critics: Collaborate with other artists, curators, and institutions to expand your network and visibility. Participate in group shows, art competitions, and art residencies to gain exposure and establish yourself within the art community.
7. Stay Active Online: Utilize social media platforms, your website, and online art platforms to showcase your work and engage with a wider audience. Actively share your artistic process, upcoming exhibitions, and achievements. Develop an online presence that reflects your artistic vision and attracts potential gallery representatives.
8. Continuous Growth and Professional Development: Strive for continuous growth as an artist. Attend workshops, artist retreats, and educational programs to further develop your skills and broaden your artistic horizons. This commitment to self-improvement will make you more attractive to galleries.
9. Seek Professional Advice: Consider seeking professional advice from art consultants, art coaches, curatos or art critics who can provide guidance and support in navigating the art world. They can offer valuable insights and help you make informed decisions about your career path.

Here are some additional tips for growing your career as a contemporary artist:

• Network with other artists and professionals in the art world. Attend art fairs, exhibitions, and other events. Get to know other artists, curators, collectors, and gallery owners.
• Promote your work online and offline. Create a website and social media accounts to showcase your work. Write articles or blog posts about your art. Submit your work to juried exhibitions.
• Take risks and experiment with new ideas. Don’t be afraid to try new things. The more you experiment, the more you will learn and grow as an artist.
• Be patient and persistent. It takes time to build a successful career as an artist. Don’t give up on your dreams. Keep creating and keep believing in yourself.

MASTERS THAT CHANGED THE CITY

A Tribute to Jesús Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz Diez on Their Centennial

Carole A. Fewell Gallery |  June 2 – October 22, 2023
Curated by Yuni Villalonga, Director of Curatorial Programs

This exhibition celebrates the centenary of world-renowned artists Jesús Rafael Soto (b. 1923, Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela – d. 2005, Paris, France)  and Carlos Cruz-Diez (b. 1923, Caracas, Venezuela – d. 2019, Paris, France.) Visionaries of their time, these artists redefined the relationship between art and architecture, as well as the art experience in the public space. Their explorations are key to the Kinetic and Op Art movements, and influenced many other generations of artists, internationally.

Masters that Changed the City… features a selection of iconic works by the artists that are a clear testament to their significant contributions to the Op and Kinetic Art movements, globally. Visitors will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a world of movement, light and optical illusion, from Cruz Diez’s “chromosaturations” to one of Soto’s penetrables. The exhibition conveys these artists’ ability to create immersive environments that challenge our perception and invite us to engage in a unique and profound way. It also provides a historical context for their work, highlighting them as pioneers in the integration of the arts, the architecture, and the urban fabric.

Through educational panels, documentary films, and curator presentations, visitors will gain a deeper understanding of the artists’ legacy and their ongoing influence on contemporary art.

This exhibition is organized in collaboration with Logistic Fine Arts, Miami and Atelier Soto, Caracas-Paris. With it, the Coral Gables Museum joins the international celebrations of the legacy of maestros Cruz Diez and Soto in their centennial.

The Power of Consistency: Cultivating a Sustainable Art Network

What is one practice that artists can use to increase the sustainability of their careers?

Alessandro Levato 

Artworkarchive.com

We’ll let you in on one simple practice that has the power to build successful art careers. 

Keep your art network up to date alongside your art practice.

The art world has developed to connect artists, art professionals, and art viewers through a variety of online and in-person platforms. For artists, it’s important for your network to build and grow with you.

Below, we have gathered some tips, tricks, and professional advice to ensure the sustainability of your artistic career.

Divide your studio practice into administrative work and creative work.

This is essential for a healthy balance in your art career.

Without the stress of outreach and communication hovering over you, that extra time will be used exclusively to work in the studio.

Using quick-update platforms such as Instagram stories may be beneficial to providing short glimpses into your studio life without much pressure on you. They’re also a great way to have your audience involved in your creative process!

You can pose questions and polls to get more engagement with your audience.

Show part of an artwork instead of the whole; think about the process over the final image! Give sneak peeks on your techniques to show your audience the steps that go into creating works. Viewers will feel like they have special insight into your creative practice, which will make them more likely to feel connected to you. 

Consider if social media is right for you (it doesn’t have to be).

Posting monthly updates of your studio, resources, or events on a blog or website are standard options, but there are a variety of other ways you can keep your following engaged.

Keep a growing list or Contact Group on Artwork Archive. This allows you to send updates or event emails If you are participating in events such as shows, group exhibitions, or open studios—plus, you can quickly send off updates to these groups using Artwork Archive.

Update your network in relation to your artwork.

To find what works for you, think about your goals—then, work backward to see what best fits your needs.

Start small! Building a network doesn’t have to be intimidating. You probably already have contact information for family, colleagues, friends, and other artists in your life. This is the starting point for your network. 

Gather contact info from people within your community to gain peer-related inspiration, knowledge, and struggles. These relationships tend to lead to opportunities like group shows, critiques, and additional resources.

Learn more here: How to Network for Your Art Business

Absorb advice from art world professionals.

Artwork Archive spoke with the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, New York, to learn more about how artists can network for their careers.

ISCP programming for their artists and curators includes public-facing events such as open studios and exhibitions in their two gallery spaces. They encourage open doors for a collaborative environment and conduct various social meet-ups and gallery visits each month. 

They emphasized the importance of starting your network with your artistic contemporaries. This comes into practice with artist residencies and the networks that you build in these programs.

How do they suggest doing this? ISCP generously provided advice on how artists can best grow their network.

First, don’t be hard on yourself. Allowing flexibility within your practice and knowing that there is a range of ways to network is critical to finding what works best for you. Some important factors to keep in mind while getting started are to ask other artists who they have connections with. Many opportunities come from artists mentioning other artists they are familiar with to a gallery owner or curator.

Have a mailing list and send out quarterly newsletters to keep your network up to date, without forcing the connection. 

Develop your elevator pitch for brief moments of interaction—break it down, practice it, and gather feedback.

Don’t forget to mention artists you like in conversation to provide opportunities for others. Lifting each other up is essential to a support network. For example, ISCP has an entire studio floor for NYC-based artists to maintain a continual conversation with their community. This produces a reciprocal exchange between New York mentorship and international contemporary dialogue.

Build out your professional art network.

Build out your professional art network with connections with a variety of art professionals. Consider a wide range of professionals like art shippers, framers, curators, art gallery consultants, art administrators at art organizations or non-profits, art handlers, researchers, art historians, and the like as part of your extended art network. All of these people within the field will get your name around.

Plus, this can increase your credibility; the more people are mentioning you, the more opportunities will open up in the future. As your network starts growing, develop a process for evaluating what is working for you. Maybe you need to work on growing more general contacts or look towards a more niche field.

Be sure to always check in about why you are doing this kind of networking and how you measure your success.

As you grow these contacts, you can start looking for client relationships.

Your client relationships are your art buyers or collectors. They are clients who want to follow and support you throughout your art career. These contacts are your last focus because they slowly build out from keeping your other networks consistent.

Clients may be interested in your work and follow you for ten years before they decide which work they want. Your relationship with potential clients is slow and nurtured within the confines of your own comfort. You already created the work and sustained your network, now let the rest come naturally. Ask questions, provide updates consistently, and give your work the under arching administrative support it deserves. 

Leverage your contacts with a CMS platform like Artwork Archive.

Don’t just collect contacts, use them to grow your art business!

You have spent time and energy collecting contacts, but the payoff comes from following through. As you divide your studio work, sharing updates and posting becomes a part of your scheduled administrative time. Creating new contacts on Artwork Archive is a part of that too—that means going to gallery openings, museums, art fairs or other artists’ studio visits and collecting emails from people you want to foster relationships with. As you visit more places and see more art, your network will grow with you. 

Dividing up your network has never been easier.

You can use Contact Groups to organize your contacts into specific categories like Gallery Connections, Artist Studio Colleagues, Art Fair Interactions, or even more specific such as Digital Work Lovers.

If that’s not enough, you can opt to create a Public Profile to share your artwork through an online presence. You can choose to have your profile on Artwork Archive’s Discovery Platform where people can come to learn more about you and your artwork. This can also benefit you to find other artists who are like-minded in the ways they are choosing to manage, document, and share their works.

Make sure to share your Artwork Archive Public Profile URL in your emails so people can be directed to your page! 

Setting up the booth is the beginning of The Makers Market Day, photo by Artist Antje Roitzsch

 

Nurture your art community.  

Your network is a huge part of maintaining a consistently growing group of supporters. Bring out those nurturing feelings and keep those connections alive.

There is a wide variety of artistic collectives that began on the foundations provided above. Starting a network is only half of it;  keeping your community updated on what you are doing encourages growth and follow-through. Participatory culture literally means to participate in culture. Keep expanding your resources and searching for new art organizations and programs that you could possibly become a part of.

Platforms such as Now Be Here went through many collaborations, realizations, and iterations to develop into their digital resource today. Encourage a slow sustainable growth that healthily tends to your needs as an artist. 

 

Artist communities and networks have the power to influence the art world.

Remember, Artwork Archive is a part of your community already. We provide a variety of resources, webinars, and questionnaires to help sustain community dialogue. You can use Artwork Archive’s Discovery Platform to connect with artists, collectors, and arts organizations who share similar views about archiving their works. 

Plus, stay up to date with the latest art news and get art career advice like this sent to your inbox once a week by joining our free newsletter here.

With a bit of conversation, time, and consistency, you will be on your way to sustaining your career!

8 Common Mistakes Artists Make

& How To Fix Them

By Julien Delagrange

Introduction: The Unwritten Rules of the Art World

Today, it seems there are no rules when it comes to creating contemporary art. Everything is possible, and there are no clear do’s and don’t’s. An artist can experience the ultimate freedom in the artist studio, but when they come out of the studio and enters ‘the art world’ aiming to grow their career as an artist, they can quickly encounter some difficulties and common mistakes artists make.

When it comes to an artist’s career and actions, numerous unwritten rules in the art world can make or break your career. The truth is your art will only be taken seriously when you stick to certain norms and standards.

In this article, we will be sharing these norms and standards. The unwritten rules of the art world are much less accessible or convenient to discover, and most artists must learn them the hard way, often losing many years of their career or sometimes even never discovering them.

These rules are inside information, and only by being an ‘insider’ you can get to know them and become successful in the art world. But how can one become an ‘insider’ if nobody tells you these rules? A paradox holding back many artists, and we aim to break this tendency to share everything you need to know as an artist, but nobody is telling you.

As a result, we are pleased to present eight common mistakes artists make and how to fix them. Instead of discussing apparent ingredients for success—such as willpower, sacrifice, or discipline—we will share specific actions, the things to avoid, and how to do things the right way.

After reading this article, you might consider reading our extensive article on How To Succeed As An Artist/Painter, purchase the printed publication How To Become A Successful Artist published by Phaidon, or feel free to head over to our Services for artists to get featured on our platform or to request personalized 1-on-1 advice.

1. No Recognizability: Having No Characteristic Visual Language and Technique

Our first crucial mistake many artists make might seem obvious, but it is much more challenging to address or fix than one might think. It is to say, the art world is immensely competitive and saturated. There are more artists today than there have ever been before.

With art being a product that can last for hundreds of years, today, there are more paintings than walls to hang them. Or, we have more artists in the world than we have art galleries to represent them. As a result, you MUST stand out.

The only way to do this is by having a very characteristic visual language. If you think about it, all successful artists can be identified at first glance when seeing their work. We don’t need to see their signature or a text card on the wall to know it is theirs.

When one sees a painting by Jenny Saville, we immediately recognize her voluptuous bodies, pink skin tones, and virtuoso brushstrokes. If we see a giant steel spider, we don’t hesitate for a second and know it is one of Louise Bourgeois‘ iconic Maman sculptures. If we see polka dots or pumpkins in sculpture, painting, fashion, or installation, we instantly know we are in the presence of an artwork by Yayoi Kusama.

They stand out because they have found their trait, style, medium, subjects, and motifs and have pursued them radically. Do things differently by following some things which are only yours, and do it radically. As a result, you will achieve a recognizable oeuvre. And doing so, you will stand out and be recognized as your career grows.

From our experience as a contemporary art gallery and as a platform examining contemporary art, this is the number one aspect galleries and collectors are looking for from a visual perspective. As a result, we can not understate the importance of having a characteristic visual language and technique.

2. Inconsistency: Radically Changing Your Style and Vision

From an artistic production point of view, there is nothing more harmful to your career than switching things up radically in the middle of your (growing) career. Galleries and collectors look out for artists who are consistent. The continuity of your oeuvre is critical.

If a gallery is exploring the possibility of working with you, or a collector has recently bought an artwork by you because they believe in you as an artist and see great potential in the growth of your career and thus the value of your works. Suddenly, you change your style completely; I guarantee the gallery director and collector will lose trust and interest in you as an artist. As a result, you have to start from square one.

Even more, you could risk damaging your artistic career permanently. If your oeuvre switches too much, you will be seen as unpredictable and thus unreliable for a long-term collaboration or as a long-term investment. As a result, collectors and gallery owners will hold back and prefer not to invest in you as an artist and go for a more consistent artist.

Yes, it would help if you evolved as an artist, career-wise and in your artistic production. But the development must follow a particular line and, above all, a vision. It is possible to start practicing a different technique or medium or change your overall visual language as long as it aligns with your vision and artist statement. The most important thing is to be consistent in the story you tell.

As a result, we highly advise all artists to write down an artist statement and use it as a compass, reevaluating it at least once a year. This might seem a formality or even a useless task, but in reality, it is a beneficial exercise, connecting your practice with your vision and setting out why your work is relevant today. Your philosophy enables you to create this continuity throughout your oeuvre. It challenges you to reflect upon your works, making it a very healthy thing to do for any artist.

Please don’t use this artist statement as something to post on your website or to send out to collectors and gallerists, but use it as a personal tool that will support you throughout your career. When you are being questioned about your work on the spot during an interesting conversation, you will already know the words and tell your story consistently from conversation to conversation.

3. Having No Frame of Reference: Get To Know Art History and Today’s Art World

Of course, one can not write down a relevant artist statement or have a solid foundation to build a compelling oeuvre or a professional career in the art world without having a reasonable frame of reference when it comes to art. As a result, it is of primordial importance to get to know art history and today’s art world first before you can join the debate and participate as an artist.

As an artist aiming to grow their career in the art world, you can be sure your knowledge of (recent) art history and overall intelligence or critical thinking will be tested by galleries, critics, collectors, and institutions. As a result, it would be naive to believe it is possible to make it as an artist without immersing yourself in art.

As we have mentioned, the art world is highly competitive, with numerous artists competing for the same galleries and collectors. As a result, the requirements to succeed as an artist are diverse and even demanding. As an artist, you are expected to have a solid knowledge of art history. In art, as soon as you put a mark on a canvas, you engage in a historical dialogue of thousands of years and thousands of artists. As a result, the canon of art history and contemporary art must be ready for knowledge.

You must educate yourself, have degrees in art history or the arts, stay up to date by reading contemporary art magazines, subscribe to art platforms, follow renowned social media channels, visit art exhibitions and significant museums, stay posted on the most important art events such as biennials, and experience the art world at first hand by visiting art galleries. Only this way will you discover the subtleties of art and the way the art world works.

4. Inconsistent & Indiscreet Pricing: Follow The Market Standard

A common mistake that can prevent you from having any growth career-wise as an artist is pricing your artwork wrong. A great misconception about contemporary art is that you can charge whatever you want for an artwork. However, as with any industry, there is an evident market standard for artists depending on their curriculum vitae and the offer versus the demand.

Only the correct prices will result in good sales. And only by building a steady history of sales can your art and your career as an artist increase in value.

When you are a beginning artist—meaning you haven’t had any exhibitions at real commercial art galleries (discover the different types of art galleries in our article The Art Gallery: Everything You Need To Know), nor have you won any renowned art prizes and your artworks don’t feature in any public or institutional collections—your prices will be situated between $200 and €2.000. By doing so, your works are primarily valued based on their decorative qualities.

When you become an emerging artist—meaning you are an artist who is still in the early stages of their career, exhibiting at some commercial art galleries by invitation, but not yet making a mark on the art world by being collected by institutions or featuring in institutional exhibitions—your artworks should be priced between €1.000 an $10.000. Now, you transcend the decorative qualities of your works and have achieved an additional artistic and art-historic value, becoming a collectible object and investment with a potential return on investment, raising the prices of your works.

As a mid-career artist—when you start to receive proper validation from the art world in the form of institutional exhibitions and by being collected by renowned private and public collections—your works will be situated in a price range of $10.000 up to $50.000. When you become a truly established artist, you will sometimes surpass the $50.000 mark to approximately $500.000. Feel free to discover more about the value of art by reading our extensive article Why Is Contemporary Art So Expensive? next.

When it comes to pricing paintings, there is a straightforward formula to determine the correct prices for your works. You will notice these prices resonate with the aforementioned price range depending on the artist’s career phase.

The sum of the dimensions of the painting, meaning height plus width, results in the asking price for the painting when multiplied by the artist index number.

(Height + Width) x Index = Price of your painting.

Once again, the artist index number depends upon the validation you have received from the art world. As a beginner artist, your index should be between 5 and 10. Doing so, a 100 by 80 cm painting will be priced at $900 up to $1.800.

As soon as you exhibit more frequently and become more serious about your career as a painter, you can apply an artist index between 10 and 15. Doing so, the same painting of 100 by 80 cm should be priced at $1.800 up to $2.700.

When you become a true emerging artist, you are frequently invited by commercial art galleries to participate in group and solo exhibitions. You start to gain genuine interest from various collectors building the foundation of your selling history; your artist index number should be between 15 and 25. The asking price of the 100 x 80 cm painting has now achieved the market standard in galleries for emerging artists, resulting in an asking price between $2.700 and $4.500.

Suppose you would start to surpass these numbers due to increasing demand for your artwork. In that case, you will have a steady and decent gallery representation that can advise you and use their experience in growing artists’ careers when pricing your artworks. From here on, pricing your artwork will no longer be an issue for you to solve by yourself. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to find the proper gallery for you and to truly invest in a long-term synergetic collaboration.

To conclude, you must be discreet with your pricing. Don’t show prices on your artist’s website or numerous online marketplaces. This might scare away gallery owners if they see you would be selling your works too cheap online directly to the client. Further, suppose a collector buys your artwork via a gallery one day, and they discover you sell your works on your website, Saatchi, or any other marketplace at a lower price. In that case, he will rightfully feel they have been charged too much, damaging his trust, and they will probably never buy one of your works again—or at the gallery that was willing to work with you.

5. Vanity Art Galleries & Contests: Focus On Mutually Beneficial Collaborations

As a motivated artist who would almost do anything to kickstart their career, you might be tempted to work with a so-called vanity art gallery. These galleries will charge the artist to exhibit at their gallery, and they promise you they will promote your works and will try to sell them to their clients. However, the truth is that their clients are not art collectors but you as the artist.

With thousands of artists, if not more, searching to find their way into the art world and dreaming of having an exhibition in an art gallery, vanity art galleries have identified this as a commercial opportunity to make a profit, squeezing money out of beginning artists’ pockets. They are not real art galleries, as they don’t have a curated gallery program. They do not exhibit artists based on the quality of their artworks but on the size of their wallet and if they are willing to pay to be included in an exhibition.

Vanity art galleries have already cashed in on your collaboration as soon as you agree to work with them. Doing so, they are more focused on searching for new artists willing to pay to exhibit at their gallery for the next exhibition than they are occupied with representing and promoting the artists they work with during the current show. As a result, vanity art galleries often do not have a qualitative gallery program, resulting in very few collectors following the gallery and a smaller chance for sales for the artist once more.

As a result, we strongly advise you to avoid collaborating with these vanity art galleries. So if one day you receive an invitation to work with an art gallery but they charge you money to participate in the show, think twice and be very critical towards their flattering invitation as it is a trick to lure you into becoming a customer for their business, with very little return for you as the artist.

Instead, focus on searching for mutually beneficial collaborations. That’s why commercial art galleries are the best type of gallery for artists—even though the connotation of the term ‘commercial art gallery’ might sound a bit negative. Commercial art galleries make money when they sell your works. Doing so, they are strongly motivated to sell your work, and whatever is good for them will also be good for you.

Further, there are different opportunities and ways to start exhibiting as a beginning artist. Discover them by reading chapter 7, How To Start Exhibiting Your Artworks, of our article How To Succeed as a Painter/Artist next, or read more about the different types of art galleries by reading our article, The Art Gallery: Everything You Need To Know.

There are also online art contests that apply a similar business model with their open calls. For an application fee of around $25, you can enter an art contest which they promise will attract many eyeballs and interesting collectors and galleries.

The truth is, however, the only people interested in or following these contests are other artists in the same boat as you, aiming to kickstart their careers. Yes, there is the possibility of a money prize, but applying for these online art contests can often be very similar to playing a $25 bet in the casino. In the end, the house always wins.

Further, with the primary objective of these online art contests being to make a profit, they will not invest in selecting a renowned independent jury because this would reduce their profit margin. As a result, a possible selection for these art contests will mean nothing in the art world and will not get you any further from a career perspective.

However, art contests, in general, are an important opportunity for beginning artists. One must first identify the ‘real’ art contests from the so-called online vanity art contests. We advise you to only apply for art contests with a long-running history, most often funded by a public institution. Look for art contests in which previous winners are established artists, and the jury is a panel of experts and renowned figures in the art world, such as curators, critics, and established artists.

These art contests will most often have a physical exhibition for all selected artists or the finalists at the show’s end. Doing so, applying for such an art contest is not only an opportunity to win a cash prize but also to have a meaningful exhibition when being selected, which is an excellent asset on your artist’s resume. Further, during these shows by renowned art contests, there will be exciting gallery directors and collectors present, which may open doors for new collaborations in the future.

6. Unprofessional Artist Websites: The Must-Follow Structure for Artist Websites

Regarding the unwritten rules of the art world, there are particular rules regarding having artist websites. Suppose you don’t follow these rules and the archetypical structure for artist websites. In that case, you will be written off as an amateur artist, and many galleries and collectors will lose interest in your profile and presentation online as an artist.

Less is more when it comes to artist websites. Go for a minimal overall look with a white background and a black or grey trendy font such as Helvetica or Roboto. There are only three must-have pages on an artist’s website. A page with a selection of your best works and metadata (title, year, medium, surface, and dimensions), a page with your artist resume (year of birth, location of birth, current location, exhibition history, collections, awards, publications and residencies if applicable), and a page with an email address or contact form to get in touch with you. Some artists could add a section with texts by art critics, a news page to communicate exhibitions, and maybe another page to overview their monographic books—if applicable.

If you visit several artist websites by successful mid-career and established artists, you will notice that all artists use this structure. Even more, you will discover the most common layout and how to present your selection of works and your artist’s resume. For a more extensive explanation of how to set up a professional artist website, read chapter six of our article on How To Succeed As A Painter/Artist next.

Things you absolutely must avoid on your website are unprofessional domain names—e.g., www.amazingpaintingsforsale.com—free Webhosting showing ads on your site. As mentioned before, prices on your website are a no-go (cf. supra). And don’t write different texts about your works. Only use texts by art critics; do not start a blog on your artist’s website because this is also frowned upon. You will come across as unprofessional and too eager to talk about yourself or sell yourself to the world.

7. Cold Calling/Mailing Art Galleries: ‘Pushy’ Self-Marketing Does Not Work

Even though many people believe becoming a successful artist today is all about marketing yourself, actively selling and promoting yourself as an artist is strongly frowned upon and could have a counterproductive effect. One of the most common daily mistakes thousands of artists make is cold calling or emailing art galleries by the dozen. This has proven to be one of the most ineffective strategies of self-marketing.

More artists are looking for gallery representation than art galleries are looking for new artists. As a result, galleries receive numerous emails and gallery visits on an almost daily basis by artists introducing themselves and luring them to be included in an exhibition. As they are being bombarded by those emails, it can become incredibly annoying for the galleries because it has become impossible to review all these unsolicited submissions. As a result, your email will go straight to the deleted email folder without watching your work for a split second.

This might sound harsh, but it is, in fact, a very logical reaction. Galleries have to disappoint artists every day. And if you think about it, asking or demanding a gallery to represent you out of the blue—which means they will have to invest a lot of money and time in you—is, in fact, not an honorable thing to expect. They do not owe you anything; they did not choose to get to know you; the artist decided that they have to review and consider their works.

In the art world, pushy strategies of self-marketing don’t work. Even more, you come across as an unsuccessful artist because you are not getting invited by other galleries, which will only decrease your chances of being represented. As a result, a more subtle and—even—more polite strategy needs to be effectuated to have the opportunity to work with a gallery.

The main goal or pretext for potential collaboration with a gallery is the gallery director seeing your works. If you submit your portfolio by mail or drop it off at the gallery desk, I guarantee they will not look at your results, certainly not in the proper context.

Instead, it would help if you maximize the chance of galleries viewing your works by chance—think of social media, other exhibitions, graduation shows, or shows at the end of an art contest (cf. supra). So, if they like what they see, they will get in touch with you. And, if they are the ones who contact you, you are in a much stronger position to negotiate or discuss the possibility of an exhibition.

You can network indirectly by following art galleries on Instagram and commenting on their posts. Or by visiting art galleries and chatting with the director or gallery assistant. Be involved in the art world, network in an organic manner, and build personal relationships with various actors, such as other artists, collectors, critics, and more.

But don’t mention you are an artist during your first interaction, or they will immediately think you are another artist who wants something from them. Instead, be genuinely interested in the exhibition you visit instead of only being interested in yourself, and you are much more likely to see that interest is returned to you.

If you would like to read a more extensive take on how to get noticed in the art world and by galleries, make sure to read our article How To Get Discovered as an Artist next.

8. Pursuing Lucrative Purposes: Think about the Long-term

We conclude with crucial advice regarding your objectives as an artist. If you aim to make a living with your art, the best way to do this is by building a solid career as an artist, which is the only thing that can add value to your works (cf. supra). However this takes time and patience, but it is the only way to have a lucrative career in the art world.

Our experience in the art world has shown that people who pursue artistic purposes will be successful and have lucrative careers—both artists and art galleries. People focusing on making money in the short-term, seeking profit instead of artistic quality, are destined to fail due to those notorious unwritten rules of the art world.

Successful artist careers don’t happen overnight. They take time and grow organically. You will notice one exhibition, art contest, or encounter in a gallery that will guide you to the next. And before you have fully realized it, you will be part of the art world, participating in the debate of contemporary art as an insider. If you would like to read an extensive take on how you can earn money as an artist while pursuing long-term success, make sure to read the article 20 Ways Artists Make Money next.

Make sure to read our article on How To Succeed As A Painter/Artist for a step-by-step approach to thinking in the long term and building a career as an artist the right way. Feel free to discover our services for artists, including our 1-on-1 professional advice and promotion services for artists, here.

Julien Delagrange

Julien Delagrange (b. 1994, BE) is an art historian, contemporary artist, and the director of CAI and CAI Gallery. Previously, Delagrange has worked for the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, the Jan Vercruysse Foundation, and the Ghent University Library. His artistic practice and written art criticism are strongly intertwined, examining contemporary art in search of new perspectives in the art

Tips for Finding a Public Commission Art Opportunity

Interested in making work that will become a part of your city’s landscape? 

Suzy Kopf 

Artmiamimagazine.com

If you’re an artist interested in making work that will be shown publicly or that will become part of the permanent landscape of your city, you need to consider applying for public commissions.

“Public art is any opportunity that an artist has to engage with the public realm. It is about artists making a conscious effort to engage and collaborate in the public realm,” said artist, public art manager, and consultant Renee Piechocki.

This sector of the art world is often (but not always) associated with and overseen by nonprofits, which means that instead of selling yourself and your ideas to one person—such as a gallerist or collector as you do in the commercial art world—you need to convince a whole group of people such as a board of directors of your work’s relevance.

The convincing happens in the application you’ll put together which typically includes an image portfolio of previous projects, a written component, and sometimes, a full project proposal and budget.

But, before you can even get to putting together a winning application, you need to find calls for public commissions in which to apply.

Start with the right places to search for art opportunities

Artwork Archive is a great place to start your search; our 2023 Opportunity Guide has national and regional public commissions listed, with more opportunities being added all the time.

Commissions that are selected by public call and projects are often paid for by taxpayers’ money, which means that who is eligible to apply is often limited to where you live by state, region, or even county.

The way to find the most opportunities in which you are eligible is to start your search in your own community. This is also a good place to start if you haven’t done any budget-based project work before—it’s harder (but not impossible) to get the opportunity to make a six-figure international commission if you haven’t first done a few smaller budget ones in the past.

Consider places in your community such as hospitals, museums, and airports

When searching in your community, consider places where you frequently see public art pieces such as hospitals, museums that get state funding, airports, municipal and government offices, and public lands like parks and recreation areas with outdoor sculptures or installations.

Hospitals can be a great place for you to market and sell your artwork. According to the Arts and Health Alliance, 56% of all hospitals, hospices and nursing centers use parts of their operating budgets to buy paintings and sculptures.

Airport terminals are looking more and more like the wings of an art museum. With their massive atriums, seemingly endless corridors, and captive travelers, airports are a perfect venue for art installations.

Tip: learn more about working with hospitals here and working with airports here.

Look on the websites of these entities and see if they have any calls for proposals listed. Sign up for their opportunity newsletters or join Artwork Archive’s newsletter and get weekly opportunities like public art deadlines sent to your inbox.

If the organizations that you are interested in don’t have anything currently on their website, you can try instead to look up the CVs of the artists who previously created work for these sites. See if you can find more information there.

You can also reach out over email to people with job titles such as “Public Arts Coordinator” who work for your city’s government or any city-sponsored arts organizations to find out when their next deadline is.

Look to those artists who have previously secured public funding for their work

As always, it’s never a bad idea to review the CVs of artists you know who have already done some public commissions and see if you can learn anything about when or how much funding they received to complete their work.

You can also reach out to them directly and ask if they would be willing to talk to you about their experience with a particular commission, and if they recommend it. You’d be surprised how much most people are willing to freely share about their experiences.

Expand your search for public art commissions once you have gotten a few projects under your belt

Once you’ve acquainted yourself with what kinds of local opportunities exist where you live, and gotten a couple of projects to the completion stage, you can expand your searches to national and international opportunities you’re eligible for.

With these opportunities you feel your work is a good match for, ask yourself how far you are willing to travel to both make and deliver the artwork.

Are you willing to drive a sculpture you made in California to Chicago for display?

Pay attention to the information in the call that indicates a bias towards local or already-established artists—if you don’t fall into one of those groups you could be wasting your time. Like with all applications, expect to put in a lot of work for possibly a lot of rejection. But if you’re successful with even one application, your art has the possibility to live on beyond you in a totally new way!

Increase your chances of getting accepted by following directions. “If an RFQ says don’t come up with an idea, then don’t propose an idea. In an RFQ, you are not looking for projects developed in isolation. You are looking for artists to come up with an idea in the context of the project and with the community,” Renee Piechocki advises.

Search and save your favorite public art opportunities on Artwork Archive 

Each year the Artwork Archive team goes on a mission to find the best art opportunities, grants, and calls-for-entry for the upcoming year—including the best public art opportunities.

You can find a list of the top call for public art, artist residencies, international open calls, artist grants, exhibition opportunities and art competitions in Artwork Archive’s 2023 Opportunity Guide

This year, we added another new feature! You can now save the important deadlines for your favorite opportunities right in your Artwork Archive account.

When you find a call that interests you, simply click ‘Add to Schedule’ and the call’s deadline will be automatically added to your Schedule. You’ll also receive weekly reminders to keep you on top of your game.

We will be updating this list throughout the year, so make sure to bookmark the page, check back often, and let us know if there is an opportunity that should be listed!

Cover photo:

“41 Structures,” a creative collaboration between Debbie Clapper (aka gneural) & Cacheflowe, is an immersive digital mural that evolves through a series of 41 animated designs. By anchoring our animated elements to window corners and subdividing the architecture into a necessarily-imperfect grid, we built a custom canvas for our geometries to explore and play together. Photo by Ryan Policky.

Power of Appearances for Artists

How To Become A Successful Self-Taught Artist in 6 Steps

By Julien Delagrange

Introduction: The Taboo & Struggle of being a Self-Taught artist

A Step-by-Step Guide to Become a Successful Artist

Today, there are numerous established self-taught artists. The fact they are self-taught is no longer an issue because their art, knowledge, understanding, and contribution to art are much more important than a piece of paper from an art university. So, let’s say that is our goal. But how to get there?

This article will explain how you can increase your chances of success as a self-taught artist in just six steps. Specifically, we will discuss where you can learn the things they teach at art university by yourself, where to start, how to develop your artistic practice, how to ‘act’ when being self-taught, and how you can make it in the art world.

All too often, there is a certain taboo connected to being a self-taught artist, resulting in various struggles and difficulties for those who do not have the opportunity—or even privilege—to attend art school. Art education can often be relatively inaccessible or too expensive depending on your socio-economical situation or your country’s educational system.

However, do not despair. Today, the most important knowledge and information to become self-taught has become more accessible than ever—if you know where to look, of course. Becoming a professional artist is not easy, on the contrary, let alone becoming a professional self-taught artist. However, with all the pitfalls and challenges one faces when becoming an artist, being self-taught should not prevent you from making it in the art world.

At art school, the focus is primarily on your personal development as an artist—learning a specific skill or nurturing you to discover your style. But as we have noticed and heard multiple times, they most often do not prepare you for the art world or how to make a career in the art world. But don’t worry, we have you covered here.

Now, one more thing before we dive into step one is determining what determines a successful artist. Being a successful artist can mean something different from person to person, but here at CAI, we always strive for the highest goal: becoming a true, established artist in the high-end art world. Others simply want to make a living as an artist.

But from our experience, we have noticed that pursuing artistic success eventually results in commercial success. Even more, when working for artistic recognition, the sky is the limit. Think of being represented by industry-leading galleries taking care of all the promotion and sales, selling your work for five up to six figures, or even becoming a canonized artist featuring in museum collections and publications.

Step 1: Explore, Experiment & Experience

Our very first step is arguably one of the most important and will run parallel with steps two and three. Before we can distinguish ourselves in the art world, we need to know what we want. What type of artist do you want to be? What discipline do you enjoy the most? What style or technique comes naturally to you?

As a result, before we dedicate our lives to a specific medium, style, technique, or vision, we need to need ourselves the freedom and opportunity to explore, experiment, and experience art.

In fact, exploring, experimenting, and experiencing art to get inspired is something you’ll have to do throughout your life and career as an artist. But, in your earliest stages as an artist, you can do this the most radically and intensely. You will notice that it will be more difficult later in your career to make radical changes. Even though, to remain interesting and relevant, your work must change and develop as well, albeit consistently. Because, as in life, the only constant thing in art is change—but we’ll expand on this later.

So yes, you can incorporate a new discipline later on or have a visual shift in your style, but during this step, you have total freedom without having to worry about any consequences. You can try out everything you feel like trying. Experiment, explore, and also experience. And I briefly emphasize this third ‘E’ from step one; experience. Art is something you must experience, both as a viewer and as an artist. These experiences will inspire you, and what inspires you will incite you to experiment, picking up various influences that will, in the end, create a new synthesis of who you are as an artist.

These experiments will result in technical challenges for self-taught artists. Here, it is time to consider supporting your experiments with online tutorials and possibly some courses. Thanks to the World Wide Web, skills can be learned from home and online. YouTube is probably the ideal place to find the right tutorials. I would advise you to do your research and select a channel hosted by an artist you like, and start binge-watching their videos and learning and experimenting along the way.

There are literally thousands of tutorials on painting and drawing. For sculpture, installation, or maybe even video art—in short, less accessible art forms—you might consider digging deeper and scoping the internet for tutorials and courses. Think of platforms such as Skillshare, where you can learn specific crafts or skills from home.

Further, today, there are no rules regarding how you should create art. From this perspective, being a self-taught artist can even be an advantage instead of a disadvantage. It is entirely up to you to paint alla prima or use glazing, with a paintbrush or a palette knife. Even more, you can just search for your own technique and methodology. Doing things differently is not a bad thing; on the contrary.

Explore, experiment, and experience freely throughout steps two and three. These experiments will be your compass to achieve your personal vision, identity, and oeuvre (cf. infra; Step 4).

Step 2: Educate Yourself in Art (History)

Step two is another crucial step when it comes to your development as an artist, but also when it comes to your credibility as a self-taught artist. One of the main things people often question with self-taught artists is if you have a decent frame of reference regarding your knowledge of art and art history. But once again, there is no reason why you should not be able to become an art expert, even if you do not hold a master’s degree in the arts or art history.

Even more, it is also crucial to know art history to have a decent understanding of art today and by extent, the role, and importance of your art. It would be naive to believe you can make it in the art world without knowing art. I can guarantee you your knowledge and intelligence will be tested as you try to climb up the ladder. So, how and where can we educate ourselves?

First, I advise starting with art history by reading the academic reference publications they use as textbooks at university. In fact, you can approach this step as an actual education, in which I highly recommend taking notes along the way. Not to use to study for an exam but to create a personal summary of art history, taking notes that can be useful for your own practice.

We start with general overviews of art history, encompassing the following publications that could be a great fit to educate yourself: A New History of Western Art — From Antiquity to the Present Day, The Story of Art, and The Art Book. These overview publications present the canon of art history. With every art movement or chapter, feel free to look at the notes to discover more specialized books on a specific era or artist. But to keep things simple first, the publications mentioned above are already pretty extensive and have a lot of information to take for now.

Next, we want to focus on our current era, from Modern Art to this day. The reference publications to read are Art Since 1900, Modern Art — A History from Impressionism to Today, and A History of Modern Art. These three are by far the most important reference publications on recent art history, and I would even advise, if possible, to read all three, whereas, with art history, one could be enough—but of course, the more, the better.

Now that we have a decent frame of reference regarding the canon of art, it is time to dig deeper and specialize ourselves in specific art movements, artists, and disciplines. Here, the selected publications depend on your interests and practice, but there are a few things I would like you to know about. Be careful with false information in self-published books. Anyone can write and publish a book these days. And even with small publishing houses, some very questionable art books are often being produced.

As a result, I would advise you to choose books from renowned art book publishers such as Taschen, Phaidon, Thames & Hudson, Skira, Prestel Publishing, Tate Publishing, Lund Humphries, or other famous art institutions acting as the publisher—think museums or universities. These publishing houses guarantee quality art research, trustworthy information, and authoritative authors and editors.

For instance, Phaidon has some terrific publications on almost any medium; think of Painting Today and Sculpture Today. Taschen’s basic art series is another excellent series of books on specific art movements and artists. The monographic publications by museums coinciding with a retrospective exhibition are also always a top-notch resource.

These are all examples of in-depth research and self-education regarding highly established art, but what about less established art? Some of the publishing houses have great publications about art today. Think of Phaidon’s series on new perspectives in art, with Vitamin P(ainting), Vitamin D(rawing), or Vitamin Ph(otography). But also the publications by galleries about the artists they represent and you might relate with.

This brings us to other sources to dig deeper and stay posted on contemporary art—think of renowned art platforms, art magazines, curatorial entities, and contemporary art museums. Even more in-depth and specialized information can be found in the academic literature on contemporary art. Whitechapel’s documents on contemporary art series is an excellent example of a publishing house compiling the most critical academic writings on a single issue or subject in contemporary art. And there are also academic writings that are indirectly related to art, like Foucault and Lacan.

But don’t be intimidated by the sheer depth of the world’s knowledge and information related to art. It is not necessary to become a true academic or Pictor Doctus to be successful. It is clear to say there are various levels of knowledge here, and I would say the first two are absolutely necessary; general art history and recent art history; followed by more specialized literature depending on your discipline, style, or interest.

Further, there are also some great ways to learn and stay posted on contemporary art that require less effort. Think of YouTube channels providing excellent information. But here, I must also add to be careful with what information, opinions, or advice you take as truth. Some excellent YouTube art channels really do their research and are factual, such as the Art Assignment and Great Art Explained, to name just a few, and some other channels are less trustworthy.

Or you could follow some renowned institutions, galleries, and platforms on social media—including YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, or subscribe to their newsletter. Think of entities such as Artforum, Cura., the Museum of Modern Art, Gagosian, Thaddaeus Ropac, David Zwirner, or high-end art influencers such as Mary Lynn Buchanan and, of course, CAI (smiles).

Curiosity is everything. Follow your natural interests. Stay in the loop. Immerse yourself in art and art history. PS: For a more extensive take on art books for self-taught artists, feel free to read our article and guide the art books for self-taught artists next.

Step 3: Get To Know The Art World & Field

Step two will naturally bring you to step three, which is getting to know the art world and the field of artists today. At first, this step might feel less important than the previous steps. However, it is not. The third ‘E’ we emphasized in our last chapter—experience—is at the center. Because the best way to get to know the art world is by experiencing it.

You might think you know, more or less, the art world. You have visited some museums in the past, and you currently follow some galleries and other artists on social media online. Well, I am sorry to burst any bubbles here; this is not enough. Art and the art world are filled with subtle details that ultimately make a difference.

Both when it comes to creating the art, finishing it, and presenting it in an artistic context such as a gallery, but also everything related to art exhibitions—think of creating a series of works or how works relate to one another in a show, the title of a show, how they describe the works and their metadata, how to talk about them, how to install them, inspirations on how to frame or present them, and so on. You need to have your finger at the pulse of the art world. What is trending today in galleries? How do their works look and feel?

The only way to get to know these subtleties that, in the end, make a difference is by experiencing them firsthand. Here, my advice is not the visit museums, but art galleries. Art museums are great for getting to know art that is canonized or being canonized as we speak—so I believe art museums are significant to combine with our previous step.

However, with art galleries, we discover art fresh from the studio. Whereas the museums primarily show established artists, galleries show art by emerging artists, mid-career artists, and new works by established artists. Further, art galleries are crucial to make a career. So it is essential to get to know them to have a clear understanding of them before we can join them.

As with art publications, we need to be critical of which galleries we learn—because there are also numerous ‘bad’ art galleries that aren’t doing things the right way. Some red flags for galleries to avoid are paintings hung from cords, packed gallery walls in which they hang as many paintings as possible, or the absence of a curated gallery program—meaning they do not organize exhibitions but simply present the art in the gallery as products in a store.

Some critical indicators of decent galleries are a curated exhibition program, a professional and minimal display, a press release with every show, a long-standing history as an art gallery, participating in art fairs, and being accepted on renowned gallery marketplaces such as Artsy or a professional gallery website.

The galleries that do things the right way are, of course, the most renowned galleries in the world, the so-called mega-galleries. As a result, this is a great place to start discovering the unwritten rules and behavior of high-end art and art galleries. Some mega-galleries are Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, David Zwirner, White Cube, Lisson Gallery, Thaddaeus Ropac, Perrotin, Lehman Maupin, Victoria Miro, Marian Goodman, and many more.

However, these aren’t the galleries where we will have our first shows. Now that we have a clear idea of top-notch galleries, let’s find some emerging galleries that could be a possible match in the foreseeable future. Try to find galleries that work similarly compared to the mega-galleries but are, of course, a bit smaller. A great place to find these galleries is the artguide by Artforum. You can simply select one of the numerous art cities they present closest to you, see what’s on, and start gallery hopping.

You will be amazed at how inspiring it is to see the works of fellow artists who are starting to make a name for themselves. Learn with your eyes. Please pay attention to how they distinguish themselves. How do they create recognizability from artwork to artwork within the exhibition—or from exhibition to exhibition?

At this point, you can connect with the gallery directors, but I would advise you not to. Or at least, do not say you are an artist, not yet. First and foremost, arguably, you and your work are not ready to be tested by the critical eyes of a gallery director, even though you might think so—and with these solicitations, you only have one shot.

Secondly, gallery directors are being bombarded daily by artists who introduce them, begging for collaboration or an exhibition, which is very tiring and even annoying for the gallery director. As soon as you say you are an artist, the gallery director will feel you are there not for the art but for your benefit, asking them to invest in you—which is not polite to do on a first meeting. So, be interested in the gallery first, and maybe one day, when you are ready and on the initiative of the gallery director, you can start to talk about your artistic activities with greater chances for success.

Other great places to get to know art and the field of artists today is at art fairs, lectures, art festivals, and events—think of the Venice Biennale, Art Basel, and so on. Visiting the ‘primary’ art world does indeed require some effort when it comes to traveling, making time, and being able to pay for the trip, but experiencing the art world firsthand and getting to know its subtleties makes the difference in the end when it comes to your personal development, understanding, and future career steps, so it can not be ignored.

Step 4: Develop Your Oeuvre — Create A Coherent Body of Work

Now we arrive at step four; we come at a crucial point in the artist’s career where the work becomes mature and forms an oeuvre—meaning: a coherent body of work marked by a clear vision, visual recognizability, and an ongoing and intriguing development.

After a period of experimentation (step one), having a great frame of reference as a foundation to create your own vision and identity as an artist (step two), and being inspired by art today (step three), we arrive at the point where everything starts to come together, slowly, but surely. You have discovered a medium you feel comfortable with, and you have a vision with clear goals that you aim to achieve within your work. It is time to polish, fine-tune, and professionalize this artistic production and create the artworks you will call part of your oeuvre for infinity.

Consistency is key in art. A vital exercise to obtain a coherent body of work and a steady development that makes sense is to write down an artist statement in which you discuss your vision, objectives, philosophy, methodology, and technique. All the ingredients from the previous steps will result in an utmost personal synthesis of who you are as an artist, what your art is, and discusses. This artist statement or vision will be your compass to guide your development, guaranteeing continuity even though you will continue to experiment, develop, and improve.

This artist statement is not a text to send to galleries or put on your artist’s website. It is a personal tool and a compass for consistent and coherent self-development. Now we have established what defines you as an artist; it is time to do it radically. Discover how you can push your vision further and further in your artistic practice. By doing so, you will be able to distinguish yourself and become more recognizable.

Because let’s speak plainly, being an artist is arguably one of the most fun jobs. As a result, the art world is oversaturated with thousands of artists—more than galleries, collectors, and curators are looking for. So you must stand out, whether you are a self-taught artist or have a Ph.D. in the arts. Be consistent. Be personal. Be recognizable. Stand out. Stay true to yourself and your vision.

The importance of this consistency is often a topic of consternation. Galleries and collectors do not appreciate radical shifts in an artist’s development because all of a sudden, it seems like to artist they invested time or money in is suddenly doing something else entirely. However, this does not mean you must do the same thing repeatedly.

On the contrary, if you do not develop, your oeuvre will become stale and boring, and you will be disregarded as a one-trick pony. So here we encounter one of those subtleties in the art world we have discussed in our previous step; the play of balance between consistency and change—or rather, developing. The thing is, as long as you stay consistent or true to your initial vision—or your vision and focus change coherently over the years—then variety is always a good thing. Let’s explain this tricky topic with an example.

Luc Tuymans is one of the most important and consistent painters of his generation—yet, he is able to switch from painting holocaust scenes to a Micky Mouse mural, a still life, to depicting numbers. First and foremost, his vision remains the same throughout all these pictures. He examines the image theory in relation to painting, encompassing simulacra, the flood of images, history, and moral complexity. But what connects these various topics visually are his characteristic nervous brushstrokes and muted palette, creating consistency and recognizability yet enabling the Belgian artist to take any subject, motif, or topic.

Numerous other artists are very versatile while remaining consistent. Think of Tracey Emin, who goes from installation to sculpture to figurative painting in a coherent manner using autobiographical elements and controversy as a foundation of her vision and artistic production. Or think of artists who dedicate their life to specific motifs and make them theirs, and examine them in numerous different ways, such as the polka dots and pumpkins of Yayoi Kusama or the cages, spiders, and spirals of Louise Bourgeois. And please pay attention to how these motifs are not random, but direct products of their vision and story.

Some artists can dedicate their entire life doing the same thing, purifying a single idea or technique—think of Mark Rothko or Carmen Herrera. And others even have a vision in which radical changes are part of their vision—creating consistency by the lack of it. Think of Maurizio Cattelan and Ryan Gander‘s intentional no-style style. Or what about Gerhard Richter, whose painterly oeuvre is marked by a never-ending quest for the possibilities of painting, ranging from photorealism to pure abstraction, minimal conceptual figuration, to hard-edge paintings?

Once again, the subtlety of these visions and the play of balance between consistency and development proves the importance of our previous steps. So try to understand the oeuvre of other artists in order to understand how you can create your own. Great starting points are a specific vision, philosophy, technique, or set of motifs.

Please write down your vision and pursue it radically in the studio. At this point, start to professionalize your studio practice. Use high-quality materials and finish every single artwork with the most excellent care. Every single work you create from here is to stay forever. The experiments become finished products, ready to be shown to the world. Time to start participating in the art world.

Step 5: Prepare Your Overall Artist Profile

In order to participate in the art world, we need to ensure that everything is correct, professional, and in line with the expected behavior of a serious artist—especially when being a self-taught artist. In this step, we will take care of every single aspect that you need to take care of to make sure your profile as an artist is appealing and professional.

By doing so, when the time comes to a collector or gallery director is interested in our work, they will see that everything is done the right way, increasing not only your credibility as a serious artist tremendously but also your chances to make things happen and making your career in the art world happen. I believe this is where a tremendous percentage of artists—self-taught or trained artists—fail and fall off the wagon, even when there is clear talent and potential.

So let’s go ahead and present an overview of what you need to take care of. But please note, try to stick with only the things we mention here. The way you present yourself as an artist online and to the world is all about being concise, formal, professional, and even a bit elusive. Anything else you would do that is not on this list can risk your credibility as an artist. So, how do we prepare our overall profile as an artist?

1. Documenting your art

First and foremost, we need professional images of our artwork. Photograph your images professionally. Have high-resolution files of your works cropped out, and possibly also a few installation or studio views of your works as objects in a room. Please note, do not simulate your works with apps in galleries or interiors. Clear up your living room or studio, rent a space, or take the opportunity when you have an exhibition to take high-end pictures. This will increase your credibility strongly. Document your artwork, writing down all metadata—meaning, title, year, medium, and dimensions. Create a catalog with what you have available to use for your future clients and galleries.

2. Artist resume

Up next, we will have to create an artist’s resume. It consists of all factual information and functions as a guide for galleries, collectors, and curators to know where you are at this moment in your career.

Your artist should include the year and country you were born, where you are based, training and education, relevant professional experience, your exhibition history, selected publications, press, awards, collections, and residencies. For a self-taught artist, I recommend you not to include being self-taught in your artist resume. Only write your education and training if applicable or relevant; otherwise, you can leave it blank.

Use this structure and look at the artist resumes of established artists or gallery websites. Follow the same form, structure, and professional approach. Don’t worry if you have little to write down on your artist resume. It will be our mission in the next step to improve and supplement the resume year by year. There is no shame in having just a few or even zero exhibitions so far; we all started somewhere. In fact, we have dedicated a complete article on how you can set up your artist resume with little to no experience.

3. Artist website

Your artist website is your online business card and portfolio. Once again, your artist’s website will need to communicate professionalism. As a result, you must go for a minimal and, above all, high-end design characteristic of the art world. Less is more. Use the websites of high-end established and emerging artists as an example. You should have a minimal homepage, a page with selected works showing only your very best works, a page with your artist’s resume and possibly a biographic text written in the third person or by an art critic, and a contact page. Anything else, such as a blog, a webshop, merchandise, et cetera, is an unnecessary risk to take. Trust us; the interested collector will email you for pricing and availability of your work. So no need to show prices online or have a webshop—but this is a different discussion for a different article.

4. Social media

When it comes to social media, once again, the most important thing is not to overdo it. Our general rule of thumb is to focus on the most powerful social media platform for artists today—Instagram. You would be surprised how many gallery directors and collectors find and contact new artists via Instagram. You can build a following online, which increases your credibility once more. YouTube is also a powerful platform, but for now, it is still somewhat frowned upon for artists to ‘vlog’ in the traditional art world, even though all significant art organizations are active on YouTube. Still, for now, I advise you to focus 100% on Instagram and remain professional with your posts.

Step 6: Make A Career Organically & Think Long-Term

At this point, you are all set. You have experimented and educated yourself, getting to know the subtleties and expected behavior in the art world that makes the difference, resulting in a mature and coherent body of artwork that is documented and accessible online via your website and social media. Now, it is time to make things happen!

We already mentioned Instagram as a great place to get discovered; however, there is more you can do to make a career as an artist. However, before we dive into the specific actions you can take, let’s discuss what you should avoid.

Aggressive self-promotion is hugely frowned upon. In the art world, you can not force things. So don’t go overboard on over-promoting yourself actively—don’t cold call galleries, magazines, collectors, and institutions. Do not approach your art as a commercial product to sell, promoting it with ads, flyers, discounts, and so on. Remain professional and never impose yourself as an artist on others. Instead, try to make a career organically, thinking long-term, by leaving breadcrumbs in the art world that eventually will make the galleries, collectors, and magazines come to you.

Participate in the art world, visiting exhibitions and galleries as discussed in step three—network organically by discussing art based on genuine interest instead of self-interest. Connect with other artists and be involved in the art scene where you want to prosper.

Even if you are an introvert and not a master in networking, you can actively increase your chances of making a career in the art world by searching for opportunities in the art world. Think of open calls for exhibitions, art residencies, art contests, grants, a project-based open call for art in the public space, and so on. A great place to find these opportunities is via the platform Artenda.net to stay posted on the most exciting art opportunities for you.

It all comes down to being around and being well-prepared as an artist. Trust the process. When the art is good, your overall artist profile has been set up correctly, and you haven’t been imposing yourself as an artist but are involved naturally and organically, people will stumble across your work. And when they see your profile as an artist is appealing and professional, they will contact you—whether you are self-taught or not.

This is where the ball starts to roll. One exhibition—be it via an open call, a gallery invitation, or with fellow artists—will lead to another. If you would like to know more how you can take your career to the next step and go full-time as a self-taught artist, feel free to read our article 20 Ways Artists Earn Money next.