Contacting galleries

[Anthony Emmolo]

Hello all,

I hope you may have some thoughts on this subject. My portraiture is more of a passion than a way of making a living. My still-lives in galleries are my bread and butter. I hope I can ask about that kind of business on this forum.

I'm living in Shanghai,China and was forced to give up one of my USA galleries last year. I would like to pick up one or two more galleries in the USA. I am having a we site created to use as a business card/brochure so that I can contact American galleries from here, and plan a trip to California to show my portfolio to galleries that I have scheduled appointments with.

My thoughts are to send an email with a cover letter and include my web site in the cover letter.

1- Does it sound naive, or is this a new way to contact galleries that are far from us?

2- Can you think of anything that I'd need to include in such a letter to increase chances of a popular response?

I've read the Entrepreneur article that Michelle Rushworth told us about. It was helpful, but I believe this situation is slightly different.

Any help people may have would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance,
Anthony

[Michele Rushworth]

Not very many of the artists on this forum work with galleries, since a lot of galleries don't like to carry portraiture. Galleries prefer to keep control of the sale and with a commission process they lose that.

I would suggest you order a couple of the art marketing books that are available through the book section of this site. They suggest things like emailing the galleries and asking how and when they like submissions to be sent. Many galleries have a set procedure for reviewing new work .(They may want a set of 20 slides mailed to them, for example). Good luck!

[Alexandra Tyng]

Anthony,

I agree with Michele that commercial galleries here are not interested in straight, strict portraiture. If you are interested in getting portrait commissions, you could try some of the portrait agencies. They often link up with local agents in different parts of the U.S.

Another thing to mention is that there is a new breed of fine art gallery springing up that is very interested in figurative work and does a good business selling it. There are several in the SoHo section of New York. Take a look at Eleanor Ettinger. There are others--maybe someone can help me out here. In San Francisco there is the Pence Gallery. In Philadelphia we have Artists' House Gallery. There are many more in many cities. If you pick up a copy of the new magazine American Art Collector you will get an excellent overview of realist galleries and the kinds of art in each gallery. I'm mentioning this in case you are thinking in terms of selling figurative art through a gallery. Many figurative pieces cross the line into portraiture, and many portraits can also be considered figurative works. If this is true of you work, it might be marketable in a gallery.

[Anthony Emmolo]

Thank you both,

My near bankruptcy a couple of years ago melted my credit cards so ordering books on line is not possible at the moment. Also, I know I'm not a portrait artist by profession, so I was a little afraid to even ask the question. As I mentioned, my passions lie in portraiture, where my bread and butter is from still-life sales.

I've had good success in the past with my galleries. However, one stopped telling me they sold art work as soon as I moved to Shanghai. In the end a lawyer had to get involved and discovered that seven paintings were sold that I had never been paid for. So, now I am down to one American gallery. A very honest one I may add, and they do well for me.

The kind of galleries I am talking about are not the SOHO white walled galleries that offer one man shows once every two or three years to an artist. These are galleries in gallery districts that show all of there artists together. Quite successfully. My work is only in the $1,000-$5,000 range. However I am hanging on the walls right next to artists in much higher price ranges. These galleries don't seem to need slides. I've had very good luck just walking in, waiting until the person in the gallery was not busy and then discussing and showing my portfolio. I'm usually accepted into the gallery.

From Shanghai, it is not as easy to do that which is why I am having the web site done. From here I'd like to approach galleries so I can make appointments for a trip to the USA.

So, if anyone has any thoughts on how to best do that to insure a better response rate from the galleries, I'd be very happy to receive your thoughts.

Thank you,
Anthony