Scenes from My Life in the Art World - The Audience

We went to the Regatta bar last night for a lovely evening of Cabaret singing by a friend of a friend. The room was full and the singer was glowing as the audience enthusiastically encouraged an encore. Two weeks ago we were in the same room listening to another friend play jazz piano to a smaller but equally excited crowd. Both performers had worked really hard to build the audience. For many artists working steadily along out of the limelight, the responsibility is theirs to bring in the customers, depending on loyal friends & acquaintances to fill a venue.

My experience with the gallery world is not unlike this. A number of years ago I contacted a gallery at the suggestion of another artist and the owners were interested in my work, which at the time consisted of oil paintings on plaster & drawings derived from old family photographs. The gallerists were drawn to the images and offered me a summer show in Provincetown. They told me during a studio visit that they were interested in building their stable of artists, adding to the successful people they have already cultivated. With new artists it was a process, they said, of career building and they were hoping to take a few new people on. I was excited. It seemed like they were committed to promoting me by featuring my work in an exhibition and engaging their existing collectors. As summer approached the gallery contract arrived and there was a request for me to send them a list of my collectors. I was a little taken aback - why would I sell work to people I already had a relationship with through a gallery that would take 50% of the income? I have no problem with the shared revenue when the gallery is doing the promoting & selling - isn't that what their job is? Anyway, it was a new relationship and an investment in a future with the gallery so I sent some names and signed the contract.

The show was a big success! At least it seemed that way at the opening which was busy with energized viewers. My exhibition was part of a four person opening and everyone brought in friends along with the Friday night gallery hopping crowd that fills the streets in August. One of the gallery owners told me that it was the loveliest installations she had mounted - all four artists in harmony, an appreciative crowd. But nothing of mine sold.

After the show the gallery stopped communicating with me - even took me off the mailing list for their other shows. No second chance. No nurturing, no investing in a future. It was a little discouraging to say the least and a wake-up call. The fantasy of a gallery taking up the challenge of promoting a new artist and helping to build an audience was not the way it typically works. The artist should make the work, promote the work, bring in the buyers and be grateful to have a venue to get the work out into the world.

I am grateful. Grateful to have the intense engagement with my work that helps me get past the not so pleasant things that happen outside the studio. Like last night, I am grateful for the people who support and appreciate what I do creatively. It is a blessing to connect in a substantive way with an audience - even an audience of one.