Art flows through Xanadu Gallery owner Jason Horejs’ veins. Second generation in the art business, (Jason’s father is a nationally recognized oil painter John Horejs), Jason’s life has always been filled with art. Though not interested in pursuing a life as an artist, he fell in love with the business side of art at an early age. At age 12, the future gallery owner was employed by his father building custom canvas stretchers.

In 1991, at the age of 17, Jason began working for a major western art gallery in Scottsdale, AZ, where he learned the gallery business from the ground up. Jason initially learned how to handle logistics, shipping and installation, but he soon worked his way into a sales position. Jason worked in the gallery’s Scottsdale and Jackson Hole, WY, locations.

In 2001, Jason and his wife, Carrie, opened Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale. In spite of opening on September 11th, they built the gallery into a successful venture selling to collectors from around the world, including major municipal and private collections.

In 2008, Jason developed a series of art marketing workshops designed to help artists better understand the gallery business and better prepare themselves to approach galleries. This series of workshops has helped hundreds of artists get organized to show and sell their work through galleries.

“I discovered,” says Jason, “that there was very little information out there for the aspiring professional artist regarding the business side of art, especially in terms of the crucial relationship between the artists and the fine art gallery. Even artists who have graduated with master’s degrees leave school having never learned how to approach galleries.”

 

Jason observes that many artists approaching his gallery are making mistakes; not because their work isn’t gallery-ready, but simply because they don’t have a clear idea of how to proceed. Jason designed his workshops working closely with artists who have learned the ropes of working with galleries by trial and error. The clear-headed advice the gallery owner gives is designed to give  artists concrete steps they can take to prepare their work, research galleries, and approach them for representation.

Jason’s workshop series lead to two best-selling books “Starving” to Successful: The Fine Artist’s Guide to Getting Into Galleries and Selling More Art and How to Sell Art: A Systematic Approach to Creating Relationships with Collectors and Closing the Sale.

In 2014, Horejs founded the Art Business Academy, a comprehensive art career course where he works one-on-one with artists to help them achieve gallery representation and increase their sales. Academy students have gone on to successfully achieve representation in galleries and have seen dramatic increases in their sales (testimonials).

“I feel very fortunate,” says Horejs, “I get to spend every day working with collectors to help them acquire amazing works of art, and with artists to help them achieve their goals of building  successful businesses around their passion.”