Well, the normal thing to do is to read art magazines, follow artists you like on twitter, then respond to open calls. The response can vary depending on what s

Well, the normal thing to do is to read art magazines, follow artists you like on twitter, then respond to open calls. The response can vary depending on what sort of show/residency is being advertised - if it's just an informal, local thing, you probably just have to convince somebody you have a good piece for their space. If it's a big institution, you probably have to send them a fair bit of explanatory matter. My preference is just to do shows in local spaces. Then you don't have to deal with any nonsense - you just write an email to the guys that run the space, then if they like it, good, you go do the show, if not, also fine. Grandfather comment absolutely nails it about the whole thing of making vs being but I think there's a flipside: if you spend your whole life making contemporary art without doing shows, you're never going to get any kind of feedback other than people saying 'is that art'? and thinking they're being clever. You need to meet people who are also doing contemporary art, otherwise it gets pretty depressing pretty fast.