Preparing to exhibit your artworks
There are a number of self-taught and aspiring artists and photographers
who tend to build a body of work over time.
One of the most common requests I get on social media networks is to look
at images and give feedback to the artist if the artworks are ready to be
publicly exhibited, if yes, how does one go about it and which galleries they
could approach.
Critiquing and curating artworks for public display is a time consuming
process and cannot be undertaken either briefly or instantly over social
networks. In all probability the responses you get in such cases is unlikely to
help you put together an art show.
Here are a few pointers to help
you initiate the process:
- If you are unsure of the quality of your work, it
would be advisable to get professional opinion on it. Look for an art
consultant, curator or even a gallerist who can critique the works and
also guide you towards having an art exhibition.
- Alternately, if you feel comfortable and are able to
be objective about your art you can choose the best works from your entire
collection. Please ensure you have a common theme or thread running through
them. Make sure you have a sufficient number of artworks. Also, be clear
that you are ready to show your art in public and to face critique.
- It would also be a good idea to visit as many art
exhibitions as possible, preferably curated art shows hosted at art galleries
in your city. What this will do is
give you a perspective of where your art stands vis a vis other artists in terms of technical skills,
composition, use of colours, theme and so on. It will also give you an overall sense
about displaying art.
- If you do have a substantial body of work which is
exhibit friendly, you could directly approach local art galleries. It
would be advisable to make a portfolio of your works to show them. Sending
soft copies of portfolios over e-mails may work, but these days one
receives so many mails and images that despite good intentions, once it slides
to the bottom of the mail display page, it is easy to forget about it.
- Approach galleries that specialize in your art domain
(painting, photograph, sculpture, etc) or those who showcase diverse art forms.
Related posts,
With this series of mini guide, Exhibiting Your Artworks, other related topics will be covered in
coming posts.
