← OG Academy · Grow your audience · 6 min
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.
W skrócie
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.