Tag: Galleries

How to Pursue Your Dream of a Real Gallery Show

To be successful in contacting a gallery let’s look at some simple tasks

Choose artwork

Take good pictures

Create special files

Know your galleries

Create a CV

Write an Artist statement 

You never know when an opportunity will show up so be ready!

Choose artwork: Take some time and choose 10 unframed works that you believe represent a cohesive art style of what you do. Don’t make yourself crazy with trying to work out if they are your true voice. My experience has shown that an artistic voice will change and grow over time.

Take Good Pictures: With the improvements to cell phones allow you to get some great low resolution shots that work with a variety of social media sites. But honestly, you’ll need good images of at least 300 DPI. This is a common request from many galleries. Check out this episode of the SavvyPainter.com podcast hosted by Antrese Wood; Fine Art Prints Q&A, with Jake Hawley from Picture Salon. There is lots of great information about taking pictures.

Create Special Files: Establish what I call a Contact folder. On your computer create a sub folder in File Explorer. Create names that look like this;

Contact_Landscape
Contact_StillLife

You can get as specific as you need to with the name. Now that the end of the year approaches, I add a date; 2019Contact_Floral. It also puts the file at the top of my computer list. Numbers come before letters in the file lists. Once these files are created you can fill them with jpegs of your chosen work

Know Your Galleries: When I was the art editor for The Woven Tale Press I would pour over art sites and art magazines looking for inspirational and interesting subjects for a large diverse audience. What it also allowed me to do was research galleries that I thought I would like to contact for exhibits or representation. Over the years I developed a strategy that has been very helpful.
If you see an artist that is similar in style to your art, click on their website. Find the gallery websites they are in and click the link.  Providing the art you see is within a familiar concept, go to the contact page and see if they have a submission link. There are thousands of galleries so don’t be disappointed if they do not accept new work.

Create a CV: This is a basic listing of your background in art and where you have exhibited or been written about. While this is an older post from thepracticalartworld.com it does a good job of addressing new artists with little to no art references
 
Write an Artist Statement: This is your opportunity to tell the gallery about your excitement in painting. What inspired the work. Was it influenced by some other artist’s style. Is it part of a series. What medium did you use. An Artist statement is an overview of your interpretation of your painting. If you are having trouble with this click here for a site that could help

By putting this all together, you’ll be ready to contact galleries anywhere

Watch for future posts where I will go into more detail of each of these subjects

Feel free to contact me with questions and comments at Don@DonaldKolberg.com
Imagination is never still. The marks we make are Verbs!

Art, Coffee, Tea and Blogs

This month I thought I would use the title of my blog as a index for some very interesting sites.

First off there’s Art so let’s take a look at some

Stolen Bacons

Christies-auction-with-Francis-Bacon

Spanish police have made seven arrests in relation to the theft of five Francis Bacon paintings from a private home in Madrid earlier this year with an estimate combined worth of €25 million (approximately $28 million).

 

The mystery of Caravaggio’s death solved at last – painting killed him


Bild-Ottavio_Leoni,_Caravaggio

One of my favorite art videographers, James Kalm
Jasper Johns, Luiz Zerbini and Thornton Dial

With the belated approach of summer, James Kalm, finds himself in Chelsea and with trusty camera in hand, records exhibitions that he hopes this world-wide viewer-ship will appreciate. The tour begins at the Matthew Marks Gallery with a walk through of Jasper Johns Monotypes. This iconic American artist has been innovating and reevaluation the practice of print making and graphics since the mid 1950s. This show presents over thirty years of work from the “Crosshatching” series of the early 1970s to his latest plates depicting a grieving soldier. West on 22nd Street, we pop into Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and view “Perhappiness” by Brazilian painter Luiz Zerbini. This exhibition shows a breadth of vision, scale and technique all within a knowing employment for current free form abstraction. Lastly, Thornton Dial’s “We All Live Under the Same Old Flag” at Marianne Boesky Gallery is a look back at the work of one of America’s most beloved “Outsider” artists.

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There’s only one thing to say

Imagination is never Still. The marks we make are Verbs!

 

Art, Coffee, Tea and Blogs

After coming across this first link from the Google Cultural Institute, I thought I’d take a look at some interesting art this time.

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-camera

The ultra definition in these works is incredible. Working with museums around the world, Google has used its Art Camera system to capture the finest details of artworks from their collection.

Next up is a unique way to work with color. And if you have the money, yeah I know I’m talking to artists, go here. If not enjoy the link

– James Turrell Allowing Limited Visitors to Roden Crater for $6,500 a Person

This past month I was sidelined from working for awhile so I had the time to explore and download a new library of art catalogs. Create your own library from this extensive list.

Download 576 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This article is a bit older but the voices in it are more than worth listening to. so enjoy what women artists have to say across a number of generations.

Women in the Art World

okay so I hope you have a pleasant rest of the month and of course remember

Imagination Is Never Still. The Marks We Make Are Verbs

Art, Coffee, Tea and Blogs

If you’re still looking for ways to procrastinate about filing your taxes, I’m supplying some fodder for your foolery. And of course a wonderful poster about…Coffee. So here you go.

 

First, I can’t help but give a nod to my mentor and friend artist Harold Garde who in his mid 90’s is still creating insightful significant art. This is a wonderful video.

 

Next is an incredible retelling of Plato’s allegory of the cave

And finally a little piece of software you may find useful when you don’t want to give out your email on the multitude of web forms floating around

http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html

That’s it for now and while you may be tired of hearing this, no one I know seems to complain.

Imagination is Never Still. The Marks We Make Are Verbs

 

Write About Art and You Can Shape Culture

Critics and Reviewers shape taste by telling us what they believe should be allowed to pass through their gates to the public as worthy art. But there is NO way that they can cover all the art that is being produced. Nor be correct in what they say all the time. Luckily there are blogs like studio critical with interview postings by Valerie Brennan that go a long way toward providing connections to artists we should know. And yes quite a few others, but not nearly enough. The reason I say this is because in your town there is very little written about the arts. By your town I mean any town that is not a major city. So go ahead and start writing. The more you write the better you get at it and the more involved in the arts you become. Very quickly people will seek you out when the local art association has a new show or when some local celebration is held. You will be the one that influencing culture in new and important ways. So get out there and write! And if you really aren’t sure about how to start here are a few tips; Walk through the exhibit to get a feel for how its arranged Does something stand out, select 3 or 4 pieces that you are drawn to that you like, it’s easier to write about something you like at first then not. Take pictures (ask permission) then SIT DOWN and write notes. You won’t remember what you were thinking when you get home. Besides it looks cool sitting there writing. If the artist or Curator is there, talk to them about what the show represents, where the title came from, what inspired the art. One important thing is to make sure you have everything spelled correctly. Take the time to get the titles, sizes, mediums and artist names right!

 

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