You sit down to build your target list of galleries. Almost immediately, the internal filtering begins.
“My work isn’t quite right for their front window. They already have someone who paints like me. I don’t have enough exhibition history for a space this large.”
Before you have even sent a single email or physically visited a gallery to present your portfolio, you have crossed off dozens of viable prospects. In a modern age, emails and physical visits are your most likely vectors for making a connection. You are trying to minimize the sting of rejection by only targeting the perfect fits. This instinct is incredibly common, but it is also completely backwards.
The Golden Rule of Gallery Outreach: Be wildly less selective than your anxiety wants you to be. It is my job as a gallery owner to curate my walls—stop doing my job for me.
1. The Myth of the Perfect Match
When you hyper-curate your submission list, you are wasting valuable studio time trying to second-guess my business strategy. Gallery owners are unpredictable.
We might be looking to expand our stylistic offerings. We might be losing an artist whose work perfectly mirrors yours. You simply cannot know our internal calculations.
If you only approach spaces where you feel like a guaranteed lock, you are artificially capping your own career.
2. The Baseline for Disqualification
I am not suggesting you spam every art space on the planet. There is a baseline of rudimentary logic you must apply.
Here is how you should actually filter your initial list:
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Hard stylistic mismatches: If you are a strict geometric abstract painter, do not submit to a gallery exclusively dedicated to traditional landscape realism.
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Different media focuses: If you throw pottery, skip the gallery that explicitly states they only handle fine art photography.
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Geographic restrictions: If a gallery’s mission statement restricts them to representing only local county residents, and you live three states away, move on.
Beyond these obvious dealbreakers, keep them on the list. If there is even a remote universe where your work could fit, hit send or plan a physical visit to present your portfolio.
3. Play the Volume Game
Artists often treat portfolio submissions like a precious, finite resource. They aren’t.
Your primary goal in this phase of your career is exposure. You need to get your artwork in front of as many gallery directors as humanly possible, whether that is through an email pitch or walking through their front doors.
Artists constantly self-sabotage by thinking, “My prices aren’t high enough for this neighborhood.” They assume failure without realizing I might be actively looking for an accessible price point to capture new collectors.
Let us be the ones to say no. Let us decide if your work is too big, too small, or too avant-garde for our current collector base.
One Final Takeaway
Every gallery owner makes choices based on a complex, shifting matrix of collector demand, wall space, and instinct. Your only job is to present a professional portfolio—digitally or in person—and let the chips fall where they may.
What Is Your Submission Target?
Have you caught yourself artificially shrinking your list of target galleries before you even make contact? Share your experience in the comments below, and let me know how many galleries are currently on your outreach list.
I research widely for my rather narrow fine-craft niche (artist’s books). I never know when a curator will respond to my work with ‘yes!’ or ‘why not?’
However, I do have hard passes now for wasting my time. If (real life examples) I’ve queried a venue & discovered major glitches in their submission system over multiple calls-for-entry, I’m not submitting again. Or I thought I found a good match, queried 3 times since 2019, and had no response…I’m not querying again.
‘No’ is easy, I cross it off and move on. My art doesn’t reach everyone and that’s fine.
No responses, to me, indicate the gallery has been swamped with unprofessional queries *or* they can’t manage their normal query level. I look at non-responders now and have an idea how they respond to billing or payout inquiries. Not all are this unprofessional, but enough that I’ve learned the cues in 30 years of selling.
I’m copying this and saving it to my approach file. If I’m standing hat and portfolio in hand and the door is still locked… What does it take to move on? I’m nno better off and the energy spent on “What if…” never gets recovered. Time is short as they say.
What should a submission letter say?
Along with a digital portfolio, of course.
I would like to know this as well. I’ve started my search recently and have gotten about a 50% response from my emails. I feel like I must be doing something wrong.
As a fine art photographer and gallery co-manager I am continually amazed and delighted that your wide ranging articles are so timely and pertinent. Thank you sooo much. Because I am located in a small AZ town it seems that expanding my exposure is the right thing to do. I recently visited your lovely gallery and you will be on my submission list.
One question: If an artist is accepted into a gallery how much time is expected of the artist to promote/expose the works in the gallery? Other than providing new and refreshing works?
Respectfully,
The cost of shipping and time for packing takes away from my purpose. You are right that I held off in the past , as I chose to make my art affordable for my region, and didn’t think it would be worth it for a gallery farther away.
Therefore, I chose to use local galleries, public venues and county fair, online marketing to my studio vs galleries farther away. In addition, living in a rural small community, networking with other artists is enjoyable. Here it is easier to get folks to know us and our work.
I echo Colleen’s question: “what should a submission letter say?”
Thanks again for an informative post.
I wonder about including my resume in an email query. I’m 63 years old and feel like my resume might be making me look too old for a gallery to invest in. Thoughts?
I generally agree with Jason, but on this one……. Having owned galleries for 50 years, and consulted to artists for almost as long, this is not what I recommend, and this is why. I have received soooo many applications from artists who have clearly spent no time or energy examining what I do as a gallery. They are clearly following Jason’s advice and applying to any gallery that might be remotely possible. The minute I see this type of inattention and care, their application goes straight into the trash.
I want applications from artists who have taken time and effort in in their application, which means researching MY gallery (in addition to all the other ones they apply to). I recommend that artists apply to as many galleries as possible where their artwork might fit – emphasize might. And when they apply, in their cover letter, explain WHY they believe their art fits in terms of medium, style, and price. Accompany the letter with at leat 3-5 KILLER artworks, and links to perhaps 10 others, plus a superb very short bio and a reference to their dynamite webpage. Do not show sold works because a gallery owner is interested in what they have that they can sell (this is true for your webpage too). Show the owner that they don’t only create art, they understand business, too. Of course this won’t be appropriate in giant galleries with many artists and every price under the sun, but that is not what most artists apply to. And application should be made all over the country, too. Art is simple and easy to ship. The details of who pays for this get handled in the artist-gallery contract negotiation. However, back to the point. Sending applications to all theoretically possible galleries based on nothing at all except that they handle art is, I think, disrespectful of both your time and the gallery’s time. It certainly does not speak well of you unless the gallery is actually at least somewhat appropriate. That only means you are not attentive or you are desperate. Do some weeding out, please.
Michelle, thanks for taking the time to share your perspective — especially with your depth of experience on both the gallery and consulting side.
I actually don’t think our viewpoints are as far apart as they may initially appear. I completely agree that artists should research galleries, tailor their approach, and present themselves professionally. A thoughtful submission absolutely stands out.
The point I was trying to make is that many artists disqualify themselves far too early and too aggressively. They often assume they are “not good enough” or “not the right fit” long before a gallery owner ever has the opportunity to make that determination.
I’m encouraging artists to cast a wider net within the realm of plausibility — not to blindly spam every gallery with zero consideration. There’s a big difference between thoughtful outreach to 50 potentially appropriate galleries and only approaching 5 because fear and self-doubt did the filtering first.
I appreciate you adding the nuance from the gallery-owner side of the equation.
I have limited myself to local galleries because the hassle of shipping and the uncertainty of dealing with people I don’t know are barriers to me. Am I wrong? I worry that scammy operators might be welcoming.