← OG Academy · Grow your audience · 6 min læsning
Approaching galleries and curators (the right way)
Most artists are rejected for reasons that have nothing to do with their work: wrong gallery, wrong moment, wrong e-mail.
Research before you write
Visit the gallery, or at least study a year of their programme. If they show conceptual video and you paint landscapes, no e-mail will fix that mismatch.
Mention something specific in your first line — an exhibition you saw, an artist of theirs you admire. It proves in one sentence that this is not a mass mailing.
What to send
A short e-mail: who you are, what you make, why this gallery specifically, and a link to your website. Attach nothing heavier than a small PDF, or better, attach nothing at all.
Your website should carry the rest: images, sizes, prices, CV. That is exactly what a gallery will look at first anyway.
Keep it short and human
Five or six sentences. No manifesto, no apology, no long explanation of your philosophy. Galleries receive hundreds of these; the readable ones stand out.
One polite follow-up after two or three weeks is normal and welcome. Two is pushing it.
Silence is not a verdict
Galleries plan a year or more ahead. A no today can be a yes in eighteen months, especially if you stay visible and keep making work.
Keep a simple list of who you approached and when, so your follow-ups look organised rather than desperate.
Meanwhile, build your own audience
Artists who sell directly and have their own collectors are more attractive to galleries, not less. You arrive as a partner rather than as a supplicant.
Do not put your career on hold waiting for permission.
Kort fortalt
Research first, write five specific sentences from your own domain, link to your site instead of attaching files, follow up once, and keep building your own audience regardless.