How to Start Exhibiting Your Art

Approach Galleries

You will be pleasantly surprised to see how many college galleries are willing to consider you for an exhibition if you approach them in a professional manner.

Write a brief email to the gallery director asking if they are accepting artist submissions.

If they respond and say yes, write a courteous cover letter to the gallery director introducing yourself and your work to the director of the gallery and enclose your artist statement with high quality printouts or a CD.

The last three solo exhibitions I booked were because I approached the venue in this way. If you approach 30 galleries and get one or two responses, those are good results.

Try local artist’s co-ops

Another option that works well for many artists is to apply for membership in a local artist’s co-op.

Once you’re accepted as a member, most co-ops will give you a solo exhibition every 2-3 years, as well as members’ shows, so you are guaranteed to be exhibiting on a regular basis.

Being a member comes with other responsibilities like a monthly membership fee, gallery sitting, attending meetings, etc. so be prepared for that.

Research venues

Now that I am a mid-career artist, I can be much more discriminating about where I exhibit my work. I always heavily research the venue first to see what kind of place it is.

I look for red flags: for example the gallery has no website or charges a fee to exhibit. I am established enough that I can turn down opportunities if I feel they will not advance my career.

Instead, I now focus my energy on building relationships with art dealers and specific curators at local, regional and national museums.

Start local

When I was at the very beginning of my career I had no exhibition history to speak of, so I had to start somewhere.

Beginning locally seemed to be the most accessible way into exhibitions, so I looked online for local juried exhibitions that I could enter, and spent a lot of money on entry fees.

I was not selective about where I showed my work. Anywhere anyone would exhibit my work, I jumped at the opportunity.

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This strategy was effective in terms of raising my local visibility and building my resume, which is essential when you’re just getting started.

I exhibited my work at all sorts of contrasting venues: an office building, local art centers, a gallery that was in a subway station, open studios and many others.

Don’t be shy and be sure to attend the opening reception of every exhibition you’re in to meet the other artists, the gallery director and the juror in person. This is a great way to network with other artists and get your name out there on the local art scene.

However, after some time, doing all of these juried exhibitions seemed to be only going so far for me. Many times it felt like a total crap shoot in terms of whether I was accepted or not into the exhibition, and paying the costly entry fees was becoming a burden.