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The key is to get a gallery to represent you. And not just any gallery, but one of the few hundred around the world with any influence - the kind that would hav

The key is to get a gallery to represent you. And not just any gallery, but one of the few hundred around the world with any influence - the kind that would have a booth at Art Basel or some of the other major art fairs around the world. But for that to happen, you actually need to be talented and create amazing work, since it's a lot easier for a curator to push for you if you create something that's compelling. If you look at the works in the elite galleries, the artists that are represented by them are much, much better than your everyday artists that you'd see at your local art fair. So, the process is: 1. Create some awesome art. 2. Show it someplace - could be in a local fair or student exhibit or on the internet someplace. 3. Have some people talk about it by sending out press emails. 4. Get a major gallery to notice your work. The good galleries are always on the lookout for new, marketable talent, and if you have some buzz, that helps influence them. 5. Profit.

TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
Being amazing or awesome is optional. I spent a while doing the rounds of art fairs in London, and while some of the work is very good, some of it is banal. One conceptual piece: a laser dot on a white wall. Another: a video of a house being floated down a river. Another: a collection of chrome door knobs. I also saw the output of KPT FraxFlame (HN readers of a certain age will remember it) framed and being sold for four figures. I asked the gallery owner if he knew what it was, and he said "Of course." Galleries are essentially marketing machines for items and experiences that don't necessarily have intrinsic non-trivial aesthetic value of any kind.
- mozumder 9y ago
  The later works can be dull, and if they don't sell, their gallery drops them. But its the initial works that draw them to the gallery in the first place is what needs to be amazing. Artists need to sell to these galleries first before selling to the elite buyers.
- unknown_apostle 9y ago
  Here's an idea for a (European) art work: collect the subsidy, cash it out in 50 euro notes and put the notes on a pedestal.

TheOtherHobbes 9y ago

Being amazing or awesome is optional. I spent a while doing the rounds of art fairs in London, and while some of the work is very good, some of it is banal. One conceptual piece: a laser dot on a white wall. Another: a video of a house being floated down a river. Another: a collection of chrome door knobs. I also saw the output of KPT FraxFlame (HN readers of a certain age will remember it) framed and being sold for four figures. I asked the gallery owner if he knew what it was, and he said "Of course." Galleries are essentially marketing machines for items and experiences that don't necessarily have intrinsic non-trivial aesthetic value of any kind.

mozumder 9y ago
The later works can be dull, and if they don't sell, their gallery drops them. But its the initial works that draw them to the gallery in the first place is what needs to be amazing. Artists need to sell to these galleries first before selling to the elite buyers.
unknown_apostle 9y ago
Here's an idea for a (European) art work: collect the subsidy, cash it out in 50 euro notes and put the notes on a pedestal.