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11/22/2004: "Home/Studio Exhibitions"

I am about to launch my second home/studio exhibition( my studio is connect to my home ) This is a very effective and necessary way of promoting ones work and meeting new clients. It is an ideal way to reach a new audience and also to make some new friends. It seems to me that artists depend far too much on galleries, they should find new ways and means to encourage art sales, after all who is the expert when it comes to explaining the paintings and talking about the various ideas which inspired the work - the artist, of course !
From the initial idea to the final brushstroke the artist is with a painting, until it hangs on a gallery wall and suddenly 50% ( in some cases more ) of it belongs to the gallery !






With more and more galleries promoting celebrity rather than actual art work, it has become a necessity for working artists to promote their own work. Galleries seem to believe if a famous person buys a particular painting this will give the artist a certain standing or credence in the art world. Where this nonsense originates from , I have no idea !
Anyway lets get back to reality - a few facts about a Home/studio show. The home/studio is a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, it is less intimidating for the viewer to enter a home/studio than a normal gallery. Most prospective art buyers will always want to meet the artist, an opportunity most galleries very seldom facilitate. By having an exhibition in the home/studio the artist is inviting the client to meet the artist in his environment, a much more meaningful experience. Also the fact that the paintings are hung in the houme/studio gives the buyer a better impression of how it might look in their home.
Artists very rarely meet their public, a painting is delivered to a gallery and that is where the story ends. The home/studio show offers a chance to appreciate peoples reactions and to discuss ideas.
It seems to me that the public and the artist need to be brought closer in order to demystify the artist. Contrary to popular belief we are not very private people, whose studios and homes are off limits to the public because of our delicate artistic nature. We are also trying to earn a living therefore we should be looking at various ways of selling our work, rather than hiding, full of angst, in our studios. Soldiering on in our solitary struggle, waiting for the perfect gallery to knock on the door !

Lets face it the home/studio show can be a bit daunting when it comes to organising and publicising but I believe it is a lot cheaper than using a gallery and at the end of the day, you are not giving away 50% of your earnings.

In the november edtion of ArtReview, there is a review of - who really matters in the art world - titled " Power 100 ". The article lists 100 names. The majority of these names are business people, gallery owners curators, directors of museums .... I could only find six artists ( open to correction ) and these were rated according to their monetary value, marketing prowess, their art was not mentioned. I pose the question , who really matters in the art world ? Call me old fashioned or naive but I always thought it was the artists and their work.

John Nolan

Replies: 12 Comments

on Tuesday, December 14th, Michael P. Ammel said

hi, as already mentioned here the internet is like a pull AND push machine for artists. This offers new opportunties for artists interested to participate active.

I'm a strong believer in the idea of "keeping the middlemen out" and I think this is very useful for both parties, the artist and the client. I think this idea has not been stressed enough, btw. to me it sounds very popular and logic. Studio/Group Shows, as well as a "road shows" to a place with potential clients (cross events) are good opportunities. Cross-selling will be used more often too. Someone who is interested in exl. housing, furniture, opera tickets etc. might be very open to buy art directly from an artist. This means a sort of, sorry relationship management, might be on the task of artists.

For the near future still a good mix will work best, but I really can't see the value of a gallery or dealer, who is offering more or less a database and a show room. Here in Europe the public service, meaning communities, regions etc. are good platforms too, they are interested to organize cultural events, because it makes them look better. Don't forget even the best advertisting page, comes and goes, a good event is something that has much more standing and potential.

Best Regards, a bientot from Southern France
Michael

on Monday, December 13th, john nolan said

Hello Linda, Rosalyn et al
I hope to touch on some of your suggestions in my next blog
Many thanks
John

on Friday, December 10th, Linda said

I have recently been using my studio to teach. I am mostly a location landscape painter but I also do studio work. I hae several private students who go out on location with me and a few studio students who paint at my studio with me.

I am very interested in all the ideas to have studio openings. This would work very well for me. Can you start a list of do's and don'ts for openings?
Linda

on Wednesday, December 1st, Wilber the horse said

As more and more artists realize that art has become a dance of politics, the good art, will finally be shown in the homes/studios of the makers. Galleries, mueseums, and all the bureaucrats will have their cultural control stripped. Resumes will finally be regarded as the crap they are.

on Tuesday, November 30th, john nolan said

I will tell you all about my show in the next blog, thanks for all the positive comments, we need to become more independent and take control of our creations, - can anyone name another profession, job, worker, trade, that must give away half of his or her earnings ? I have yet to meet a gallery that actually earns the 50% commission it demands !

on Tuesday, November 30th, Rosalyn Gaier said

John, thanks for your interesting thoughts about home/studio exhibits.
How do you handle exhibit announcements?
What presentation preparation do you feel is important?
What expense items do you deal with?
Rosalyn

on Sunday, November 28th, walterking said

Jose said "We should be the ones generating the dynamics of our careers not galleries and especially not the glossy magazines, unless of course we have succeeded in having them join in on the action we first generated, on our terms and conditions – not the other way around."

I think John's is perhaps the most important blog written so far on wwar. Jose confirms my previous response as have others. With the web as a tool artists have already begun to persue self autonomy. Now I have to stop my lazy and cluttered ways and clean up my studio so I can make better use of it.

walt

on Friday, November 26th, jose freitas cruz said

John, you speak to us of the benefits that are to be reaped from organizing private viewings. I find great truth in what you say. I hope you will not object if I contribute with my own experience on the matter [it turned out to be a lot longer than i had intended!].

Home/studio exhibitions are worth every bit of effort you decide to put into them! If organised properly they can be one of modern-day artist’s most powerful tools, supplying a sound and growing foundation of supporters and a trustworthy network of allies in places that reach far beyond your own limited capabilities and will spread the news of your work not because it has become fashionable to bring up the name but because they will forever treasure the moment you took in your studio to share with them something that very rarely transpires in the art gallery circuit – namely a deeper sense of the essence of your work through a meaningful encounter. Private viewings in the artist’s home or studio can be magical events.

Faced with the same difficulties most of us have to battle with and faced with the preposterous prospect of having to part with 50% of the bounty at the end after providing galleries with much more than just the artwork, I took to showing my art at home and in my studio in the early 90’s. At the time my somewhat more established colleagues cried out that I was committing a terrible mistake, that my work would never acquire visibility and that I would never be able to sustain myself as an artist. By visibility I believe they meant being seen in the proper places by the people they felt were important enough to spread the right word around. I have proved them wrong but I still remember how vulnerable they made me feel at the time and how I wavered and felt uncomfortable about the decision. But I remember also how stubborn I was and how a particular vision of what I believed the new times upon us made possible helped me stay on course all these years. Mentally the decision was quite straightforward and simple: Did I want to be famous or did I want to become an artist? Did I want to join a circus or did I want to invest my energy in developing my vision at my pace and on my own terms? Did I want to run the risk of falling asleep or did I want to remain awake till the very last day I lived - could I really be so foolish as to sell my soul so soon to the devil for my 15 minutes of fame? Looking around I found that, just as you have put it in your blog, galleries promote celebrity not art and that the colleagues who had whispered such things to me had decided to go for the ride.

There is something else you say that I feel is extremely important. I know we are not all the same and many of us are not as extrovert and socially fit to take the plunge but there is truth in the notion that the artist and the public must come closer together. There is a genuine hunger on the part of potential collectors and art lovers to meet artists in their environment, to enquire about their visions, thoughts and feelings, and there are benefits for the artist to reap if he decides to come out from his shell [even if only a little] and help them to look deeper into the work he produces and gain a more meaningful insight into his vision of the world. I have only twice come upon people who have silenced me when I was conveying what I thought was pertinent information and the feeling still lingers that neither of them was interested in the artist – or even in the artwork for that matter - and was only acquiring the pieces because word had reached them that my previous exhibition had sold out [those two pieces sold left a hollow feeling]. I am pretty much a hermit myself, I do not in the least appreciate mingling with people whom I hardly know and refer to our profession as a hobby without enquiring much beyond that – very often I find that it is the very same audience galleries select to fill an opening. It is a fallacy believed by many that this is the only way you come across collectors or genuinely interested potential buyers. It is not, but it remains an inescapable fact that we cannot simply hide in our shells and expect a miracle. Home/studio shows are a precious tool we should make more and better use of. We cannot expect great results overnight but over a period of time you generate a certain interest and through word of mouth your guest [friends] list expands as does the aura of the events you hold. I have found that these shows are far more intense than the gallery events and that both the guests and myself feel quite energized at the end. This is important. This is where we gain the realisation that we have an edge over the gallery circuit. We have established a direct bond with the very people the galleries depend on to survive commercially and we begin to sense that soon an acquaintance of the first will ask to visit the studio or be present at the next show. What follows is not unlike the snowball effect we used to watch in cartoons, if we keep up the quality of the work and the magic of those encounters the result is growth.

There is a down-side of course but if, in our mind and in our heart, we have come to terms with the fact that what we are seeking is not celebrity but to pursue a living as an artist this should not worry us in the least. We should be the ones generating the dynamics of our careers not galleries and especially not the glossy magazines, unless of course we have succeeded in having them join in on the action we first generated, on our terms and conditions – not the other way around. It is fitting that the artist seek for help along the way but his most trusted allies will not be found in galleries but amongst the people who have taken the time and the effort to visit him in his own living/working environment because chances are greater that their interest is genuine and the artist always remains in control. The rub is, of course, that once we embark on such a venture galleries shun us even more. They tend to refuse to promote the work of artists who try to earn a living without giving them what they claim is their fair share when in reality all the money they ever made through you thus far was through your very own contact list in the first place – this nonsense that they are dynamic venues that expose us to a more erudite and knowing public is sand they throw into our eyes to inflate our egos. The truth of the matter is that we would be hard pressed to find any other business venture in which the contractual position of the parties is so iniquitous and nevertheless accepted as a necessary evil [there are others of course, the music industry for instance, and it is interesting to read Robert Fripp’s views on how he got around that www. ]. In the art world it is perhaps more difficult to be independent. A home/studio exhibition is a great start. It would take great concerted effort, and would be impossible to achieve on a global scale, but pockets of resistance to the present state of iniquity are conceivable. New times are upon us. We have to look at things in the face, we have to learn to distinguish our creative dimension from that other we often turn our backs on and requires that we expose ourselves and sell our work in order to make a living. We have to face up to the reality that in the end a business situation will inevitably arise, that money will become a factor in the equation, and that bartering and misunderstandings will almost always ensue. But the longer we delay assuming that dimension and taking it into our hands the longer we allow ourselves to remain at the mercy of opportunistic middle-men who all too often take advantage of a weakness they know many of us artists tend to possess. We must learn how to harness the power we have in our creative moments and see it through to the very end of the process without abdicating at that most crucial stage when we are ready to reap the rewards

We have to focus - stay on course. If we empty our egos, let go of aspiring towards fame and concentrate on the project of our art I am confident that we can reach a position where we will generate our own dynamic and invert the balance of power to the point where there is absolutely no doubt art galleries will become the ones making the efforts to cash-in on the profits we create and agree to more equitable conditions. I truly believe we are living in revolutionary times and that commercial galleries will slowly but surely loose the stronghold they still exert over the whole affair. A new generation of artists is out there and either art galleries adopt a completely new outlook on the way they handle artists and their work or they can be sure to loose out on the fabulous opportunities that are in the offing. These are interesting times for us. Let’s all get to work!

I wish you all the best in your forthcoming show John.

on Wednesday, November 24th, Devin Gonzales said

Mr. Nolan, Your blog caught my eye, and I must say that your words reflect a real need in all parts of this country where art is concerned. I'm just getting started as a professional artist, and I'm finding that the art market is not an easy egg to crack. I think that the biggest obstacle is in trying to network and build relationships with other artists and art lovers. The opportunities are sparse here in Colorado. The galleries here rely on very well established artists and will often limit their exhibitions to the subject of nature, or decoration. I feel that the only way to get around this is for younger, less established artists to get together and share their work and ideas. There is much more strength in numbers. Unfortunately, finding ways to inspire this sort of cooperation has been difficult, but I remain optimistic that in time I will find artists here who think similarly. I've heard of these "home shows" and I think they are perfect if one can find the people and resources to make it happen.

on Monday, November 22nd, Walter King said

John,

You are quite right. It is time for artists to be more entrepreneurial and take matters into their own hands. The web has already begun to move us in that direction. Might as well go the distance. Galleries, except for a very few high powered ones in certain major cities often times do very little for the artist but hang the work (if they don't expect the artist to hang their own work) and maybe send out a few postcards/invitations. Even openings are getting smaller and cheaper.

Often they even want the artist to contact their own clients (I supect this is often to suppliment their own lists) and do their own advertising whether it is paying for all or part of the postcard, space in local art magazines and even writing their own press releases. I even know commercial galleries who expect the artist to provide the elements of the opening at no cost to the gallery. So after making the work, framing costs, post cards and stamps, time spent doing other PR like contacting local reviewers and or critics, wine and cheese the gallery then expects to be able to reap %50 of the profits.

Dealers and galleries used to make studio visits to find new artists... they often times entered their artists work in competitions, developed other promotional activities to get press and notice, nominated their artists to Museums.... and they only took around %25-35 at the time.

Studio (whether solo or in groups)and home-studio openings have been popular for some time. In fact it was the way most artists operated up until the early part of the last century. At the end of the 1800's and the beginning of the 1900's art dealers often simply purchased the work directly from the artist at wholesale prices, then marked up the work and sold them in their galleries. The artists would watch the sales and renegotiate wholesale prices based on their retail success. But as artists depended more and more on dealers and galleries the agent took more and more for granted assuming they had power over the artists and could get them to do more and more of the work. Cezanne used to complain that they were trying to "get their hooks into" him.

With more and more artists doing their own promotional work on the web and galleries doing less and less for their %50 we seem to
be heading back to the time when we did it all and succeeded or failed by our own hand.

on Monday, November 22nd, Linda Hoard said

I agree completely, John. I have just begun having little "get-togethers" in my studio a couple of weeks ago.
With all of my clutter, work, office... I can only have about 8 people in at one time... so I've elected to have more gatherings (about every two weeks) and keep it cozy.
So far, so good.... people are talking and buying.
Good luck on your studio show...
By the way... this is my first response to one of these things... so I hope it works...
Best Regards...
Linda from Washington state

on Monday, November 22nd, Roger Cummiskey said

Well done Johnie. Ar an liaroid aris!

Roger here in Spain again, having swapped

the pints of Guinness for Gallons of Wine.

The cold for the heat and

the foreign for the home grown.

Which, I wonder is the lesser of two evils?

Time will tell whether or not decisions are right.

In the meantime we have also swapped mince for fish!

Best of luck with the show and keep blogging!