You might remember that I was going to approach a gallery in California and I finally did and the good news is I got a very favorable reply. The bad news is, he's closing the gallery in LA and moving to Pasadena. The good news is, he is going to re-vamp the gallery's web site doing on-line exhibitions and is very interested in working with us.
This has been a subject of some discussion among some of us glass artists. 'This' being whether the 'gallery' is still a viable economic model. I've talked to more than one gallery owner who thinks about letting their physical space go and conducting business on-line and at the national and international art and fine craft venues, of which there are many throughout the year.
Maintaining a physical space is costly especially if you also travel to and carry work to the 3 SOFA shows or Art Basel Miami or Glass Collector's Weekend or any of the many other shows like them. And the buying habits of collectors are changing as well. They seem to be preferring these large shows (where they can view a greater amount of work in one place) and benefit auctions (where everybody gets a good deal and the artists get screwed) and even on-line acquisitions over patronizing the local gallery. All of which begs the question, if they do choose to give up their physical space, doing business on-line only, do galleries still deserve 50% of the retail price with no overhead and no staff?
Quite a few galleries have closed their doors in the last two years since, for the most part, when things get tight in the economy, art is the first thing people stop buying. An already iffy economic model for some galleries, two years of deep recession put the final nail in the coffin so to speak.
And it's not just the recession. The gallery owners are aging. All the gallery owners I know are my age or older and I'm no spring chicken. I wonder what's going to happen when they all finally close up shop. Will they be replaced by new galleries? The collectors are aging too and there has been much discussion among gallery owners as to whether or not younger people will collect art as they seem more interested in spending their money on state of the art electronics and gizmos.
All three of the galleries that show my work have survived so far but not by selling my work. It doesn't help, I'm sure, that I went two years without making anything new and another whole year to produce 5 finished pieces. Though I am more than half way through the planned botanica erotica work, none of them are finished and ready to be sent out.
It will be interesting to see what the next 5 years or so bring since the last 5 years or so has seen an explosion of on-line only galleries and sales venues for artists. These venues have their pros and cons as well especially when there are hundreds of artists and artworks available on one site. How does any one artist get noticed?
Most especially, how do I get noticed?
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