This question reminds me of the cognate question for aspiring writers: "What do I do to become a quote-unquote real writer?" It's impossible to give a blanket

This question reminds me of the cognate question for aspiring writers: "What do I do to become a quote-unquote real writer?" It's impossible to give a blanket answer since everyone takes their own path! But this might be helpful. One piece of conventional advice for writers is to submit your work to as many journals, publishers, etc. as you can, to build up some name recognition and a publication history. As the thinking goes, if you're persistent and lucky enough, eventually you'll become "known." The problem there is that you're putting yourself at the mercy of other people's gatekeeping. Maybe you could do what I did, only for visual art (assuming you're interested in visual art) - start an online art review magazine. Grab a domain name and a site template, pick a free or at least cheap hosting provider, get Submittable / Duosuma accounts, then start publishing stuff from other artists while you work on your own. The benefit of this approach is that it turns the tables on some of the barriers to entry and also acts as a fantastic networking mechanism. People love, absolutely love, having their stuff published, even in new and untried magazines and journals. It's the quickest way I know of to meet dozens of like-minded people in a very short time. Hope that helps.