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How to Get into a Gallery Seminar by Reed Horth

Reed Horth

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April 6th, 2015 - 01:07 PM

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How to Get into a Gallery Seminar by Reed Horth

From: http://www.lifeisartfest.org/2011/01/19/photographs-of-life-is-art-creative-connections-8-on-11811/

Courtesy of James Echols and Life Is Art Miami.

Life is Art Creative Connections 8 at GAB Studio in Wynwood on Tuesday, January 18, 2011. We had a great crowd and everyone had a great time.

We had Reed V. Horth from Robin Rile Fine Art Gallery doing the presentation. Reed spoke about how to approach a gallery and prepare your portfolio to best showcase your work. How best to introduce yourself to the gallerist. How to make a good impression. What the galleries are looking for, in terms of presentation.

Reed has worked as a gallerist and art dealer for many years and will give you some insight into that side of the business so you can better present yourself and your work.

Check out Life is Art at www.lifeisartfest.org for more details and rsvp information.
Curator and Dealer Reed V. Horth lecturing at GAB Studios in Wynwood about “How to Get into a Gallery” (1/18/11)

Reed’s Lecture:

Good Evening.

My name is Reed V. Horth. I am the President of Robin Rile Fine Art. For 12 years I managed galleries in Tampa, Miami, Palm Beach and Sarasota and now I am an independent dealer, agent and curator based here in Miami. Having been in the gallery world for as long as I have, there are a multitude of stories I have about artists securing representation in a given gallery. As well as artists shooting themselves in the foot while presenting themselves and their work to us. This lecture is called “How to get into a gallery”, but it could just as easily be called “How NOT to get into a gallery”. Some of the stories are funny, even if only to me. But, others present a stark contrast between the right and the left brain…. the creative side and the business side.

Remember: Time is Money. You spend TIME to save MONEY, or your spend MONEY to save TIME. So do galleries. You want more TIME to do art? Spend MONEY to hire a competent gallery. You want to make more MONEY? Spend a little TIME preparing yourself to be as professional as possible.

I am here to explain a few things that you can do to spend as little TIME and MONEY as possible in an attempt to gain representation. I am not going to guarantee that you WILL get representation. But, in the end, you may be more prepared to seek it and earn results from it.

Before you approach any gallery, professional representative or broker, a few things should be done in preparation for your visit.
GAB Studios crowd for Life Is Art Creative Connections with Reed V. Horth, “How to Get into a Gallery”

1. Be a professional: This is your job. Not a hobby. Remember: Time is Money. You will be dealing with people who have the mind-set of professionals, perhaps people with degrees in business or finance. While all gallerists obviously have an interest in fine art, it may be from a very different side of art than the interests you have in it. In my case, I always wanted to be an artist, but it turned out that I was not quite as good as those I saw around me. This caused me to look for other avenues in the arts that I could flourish. So my skills were honed in sales and presentation of art just as yours were honed in the execution of your work. My clients tend to be professionals in finance, physicians, lawyers and people who often have advanced degrees and are demographically predisposed to a modicum of success. These are often the people who collect art and they are used to dealing with people who speak clinically about their investments. Gallerists can provide a balance between the creative zeal you bring to your work and a professional aura a buyer will expect when spending large amounts of money. Make no mistake. You want as much money out of your art as possible. Therefore, the audience gets much smaller and more critical as you ascend in price. They will be pickier and expect professionalism at every turn. While artistic quirkiness may become a hallmark of your trade later on, it may not necessarily translate to actual buyers now. Now, you must be a professional. Much of this may seem obvious. You may be saying, “I would never do that”. “I am too smart for that”, but I can tell you from experience, I have actually heard the line, “Your gallery is crap, but what you really need in here is… ME!” What’s worse… I’ve heard it several times! In fact, a young artist entered a gallery I personally curated, proceeded to look around quietly for a few moments, and then approached. He proceeded to tell me that the works I had assembled were, and I quote, “Crap”. He then extolled the virtues of his own work and said that if I wanted to have a real gallery I would feature him. Trying to keep cool… I stood up, thanked him for his business card and shook his hand. I then led him to the door where I bid him goodbye. Needless to say… We never featured his work.
Reed V. Horth lecturing on “How to Get into a Gallery” at GAB Studios in Wynwood.

2. Do some research: Know where you want to be and who you want to be with. Talk to other artists the gallery works with. What is their reputation in the art world? Do they pay their bills? Do they get sued a lot? How broad is their reach? Local? State? Regional? International? Anyone who attended my last Life Is Art seminar will remember I spoke about what I called “Predatory Galleries”. These still exist and you should know about who you are dealing with before you do. Use the Google machine. Check them out. Ask some questions. Protect yourself.

3. Ask yourself some questions: Does my work suit the style of this gallery? Is my artwork in the right price range? Do they have another artist whose style mirrors my own?

Everyone wants to think that their work is the best in the world and every gallery would be honored to show it. But a few factors must be considered from the other side. If your work is abstract and everything else the gallery shows is figurative. Perhaps the gallery owner only collects figurative work. While your work may present a different option for the gallery’s collectors, you must at least attempt to determine whether or not the gallerist even likes abstract work. A few questions to the gallery staff might save you a lot of time in narrowing your search. Remember: Time is Money.

Reed V. Horth lecturing on “How to Get into a Gallery” at GAB Studios for Life Is Art Miami.

If your artwork costs $10,000 and everything else in the gallery is $500-$1,000. Perhaps you are not a good fit. Perhaps this gallery does not have clients in your price range. They may be ill-prepared to deal with works on this level and won’t have clients looking to them as suppliers. This works in the opposite direction as well. If your prices are $1,000 and everything else is $25,000, does your work diminish that which it is being shown with? While this might be an uncomfortable question for you to answer, I can assure you that the gallery owner is thinking about it. Each space on a wall of a gallery is thought of as real estate. What is the rule in real estate? Location, Location, Location. Their best works get the best spots because they make the most on them. It is hard for them to give a $25,000 space to a $1,000 work. Again, perhaps you may not be a right fit.

Analyze the works they have and see if you are in direct competition to an artist they already feature. While you may see yours as beautiful and theirs as crap, the gallery owners often don’t want items that are too similar because it causes confusion in their collectors. I featured Richard MacDonald sculptures for several years, but there are a few other artists who have a similar theme and patina. If I place a Martin Eichinger or a Tuan on the floor with a MacDonald, even though I can plainly see and explain the differences, many collectors will get confused.

Life is Art Creative Connections with Reed V. Horth, “How to Get into a Gallery”

4. Be prepared: Have a business card and approach any meeting as if you are in a job interview. Dress professionally, if with your own flair. BE ON TIME. Remember: Time is Money. Conduct yourself in a manner to suggest you will not embarrass the gallery owner if he/she puts you in front of their investors and clients. There are hundreds of galleries throughout the US. There are hundreds of thousands of artists throughout the US. You must distinguish yourself from the pack, by being original, respectful and professional. I can assure you… not all artists are. So you WILL stand out.

5. Have a portfolio available in various media. You probably have a Facebook page, perhaps even a website featuring your work. Do you have a portable portfolio? While the days of unwieldy portfolios may be coming to an end, and the era of the IPAD portfolio are dawning on us, have something that you can easily manage to show your work to your prospective gallery. Utilize technology to your advantage and make certain that your presentation is professional. I have literally had people show up with Xeroxed fliers with their work on it. Not a good method.
Life is Art Creative Connections with Reed V. Horth, “How to Get into a Gallery”

6. Know your audience: Galleries are often not managed on a day-to-day basis by the decision-makers in the gallery. While obviously there are exceptions to every rule, the person you may speak to if you randomly show up or call a gallery may not be the person who you need to speak with about representation. What you may find though is that person’s perceptions of you: your professionalism, your appearance, your manners, will all be transmitted if you leave a message for the owner or manager.

7. Time is money: Every minute a gallerist spends with you as a solicitor is a moment not being spent by a gallerist doing their job, Selling. Even if you are not thinking about their time… They are. Remember: Time is Money. Therefore, plan ahead. Call the gallery and find out who the decision-maker is and when might be a convenient time for them to meet or speak on the phone. Schedule an appointment when it is convenient for the decision-maker. This may or may not be the most convenient for you, but that is because you are asking something of them. Not the other way around. Before your appointment, ask if it would be OK to forward a few images to their email to see if you might be compatible with the image they are trying to project. People appreciate when their time is valued.

Once, in my former gallery in Tampa, I was giving a sales presentation to a prospective client and an artist showed up with several large canvases, two in each hand and a buddy behind him with two more. This showed a lack of respect for my time, as the client I was with was a scheduled appointment which had limited time for me to present work to. The artist was adamant that I look at his work right then. I kicked him out on his butt and told him not to come back. A sales presentation is like a romance with a client and the slightest interruption can ruin the flow of the moment and inhibit a sale. The artist had effectively taken money from my pocket in that instance. This is NOT conducive to me taking a look at your work, no matter HOW talented you are.

This could have been handled by setting an appointment, just like I did with my client.

GAB Studios lecture “How to get into a Gallery” guest, with what I think is a portrait of Reed.

8. Self-representation: Be prepared to have a gallery ask you about self-representation. In this age of Google and self-contained websites, galleries are not incentivized to represent artists who also sell their work directly to the public. If you have a website or Facebook page, and gain representation, understand that galleries will want you to send clients who attempt to go to you directly, back to them for sales. While you might be tempted to take the money and run, consider a few things. The gallery is pouring money and time into representing your work. Remember: Time IS money. The advertising they are doing, the shows they may conduct, the sales presentation they make, all of this is as deserving of respect as your hard work to produce the Art itself. Plus, you may make a sale to one client, but you may make 50 sales to one gallery. The long term benefits of doing the right thing will pay dividends for you.

About a year ago, I featured a young artist whose work I admired greatly. I advertised it internationally and met a foreign client online who was prepared to make a purchase. The client went directly to the artist who then sold the piece to the collector. I dropped the artist from my inventory that day. The client made it clear that my advertising is what brought him to the work, and the artist had never sold internationally, but he sold it to the client anyway. I hope it was worth it, because the artist I picked up in his place has sold a LOT of work in a similar genre through me.

9. Pricing: Have a price list prepared and settled on prior to offering your work to anyone. There is nothing worse than asking for pricing on a work and hearing, “I don’t know”, or “Well, I haven’t really worked that out yet”. Work out a price you are comfortable with for each of your works. Some artists will base it on size, time it took to complete, complexity or a graduated pricing model based on prior sales. Your prices should be stable and demonstrable. Do not fluctuate between prices based on who you are speaking with. Be able to back up your prices with a sound rationale. For example: Set sales goals for yourself. If you sell X number of paintings/sculptures within X time-frame you raise your prices X percent. Or, raise your prices ONCE maybe twice annually based on sales. If people see your prices are fluctuating there is no perceived value. Whether or not someone is investing in art, they still want to have a perception that their money is well spent. If you periodically discount or have a “Fire-sale” it will devalue your work in the eyes of the public.

If you do get into a gallery, understand their pricing structure. While commissions fluctuate from place to place, galleries will often “keystone” prices. For example: Your work is priced at $1,000. The gallery will have in on the floor for $2,000. This keystoning covers a gallery’s staff commissions, wall rental, lighting and peripherals, rent, etc. Some artists find this commission excessive and push for a commission of 15-20%. I don’t recommend this because there are a LOT of expenses that go into running a gallery. There is simply not an incentive to bring in an artist, take up wall space and spend time marketing an artist for only a few hundred bucks, or less.
Life is Art Creative Connections with Reed V. Horth, “How to Get into a Gallery”

There are also art publishers/agents who work to get your art into galleries. This will often drive the price of your work to three times, as the agent may keystone, the gallery will keystone and you will have your fees. Artists are sometimes taken aback when they see a price on a wall three times what they make on it. After all, they did the art, right? Shouldn’t they get the lions share? Well, at this juncture there is a division of labor. You do the art and show it to an agent/publisher. They pour money and resources into marketing and possibly printing your works for the widest possible audience to be met. This commands money. Therefore, a publisher or agent may “keystone”. After all: Say it with me now: Time is Money. Once it arrives into a gallery, the keystoned price from the agent may again be keystoned by the gallery itself. So your $1,000 piece is now $4,000 on the wall. Why this disparity? Well, there are a few factors, an agent or publisher will be marketing you to retailers who can literally sell hundreds of your works. You may sell one piece here or there, but if an agent finds you a network of 20 galleries that wish to feature your work, it requires compensation. What you lack in the initial costs (that $1,000) you make up for is aggregate costs ($1,000 times whatever those 20 galleries can sell). The gallery must make money. The Agent must make money. And you will be better off for it. This is why a stable pricing model is necessary. Because you will have people depending on you to produce work, maintain a manageable pricing structure and keep everyone up-to-date on inventory changes.

Why do I keep emphasizing Time IS Money? Simple, because the gallerist you want representing your work is going respect this dictum even if you don’t. They know that in order to make money, they will spend some time. Time finding clients and presenting your work to them. Time vetting all of the artists that approach them. Time hiring staff. Time changing light bulbs and hanging work and advertising and time blah blah blah. This is time they can spend doing anything. Playing with their kids. Watching TV. Doing their own art. They do it in order to work for you and with you. You must do the same and respect that balance. And in order for them to have some time, they may need to spend some money. In order to make some money, you need to spend some time.

Thank you.

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