A Worthwhile Risk?

By Daniel Grant, Guest Writer

In order to succeed in your career some financial investment is usually necessary, and the career of the fine artist is no exception: art supplies are expensive, art schools can be astronomical, and finished works may have to be framed, crated, shipped, and insured. There are outlays for postcards, postage, portfolios, brochures, slides, and even perhaps a website. And then there's the question of vanity galleries.

In New York City there are a number of exhibition spaces--most of them called galleries--that charge artists between $1,000 and $4,000 for the opportunity to display their work for a two- to four-week period. Monserrat Gallery, for instance, which is located at 584 Broadway, has three rooms that are rented for two-week shows: The room with a twenty foot-long wall costs $1,900; the gallery with a thirty-foot wall is $2,300, and the forty-foot-long space rents for $3,900. Jadite Gallery, at 413 West 50th Street, charges $1,200 for its small room and $3,500 for the larger space for shows lasting four weeks. Similar fee structures are also found at Agora Gallery (560 Broadway), Art Alliance (98 Greene Street), Artsforum Gallery (24 West 57th Street), Broome Street Gallery (498 Broome Street), Caelum Gallery (526 West 26th Street), Cast Iron Gallery (159 Mercer Street), E3 Gallery (47 East Third Street), Emerging Collector (62 Second Avenue), Jain Marunouchi (24 West 57th Street), New Century Artists (168 Mercer Street), Nexus Gallery (345 East 12th Street) Slowinski Gallery (215 Mulberry Street), Subculture (376 Broome Street), and World Fine Art (443 Broadway).

Is it worth it to pay for an exhibition space? It depends. One of the first things you should investigate is what gets included in the rental. Some exhibit spaces may provide someone to hang the works and staff the space; at others friends and family of the artists assume those jobs. Promotional efforts are almost always limited at best. New Century Artists will place a listing in the Art Now Gallery Guide, but Feroline Pavone of Agora Gallery warns that artists can only have a catalogue for their shows "if they pay for that."

Another question to consider is whether the show will attract buyers or lead to future opportunities. Most of these spaces are located in major gallery districts--57th Street, SoHo, Chelsea, and the East Village--so that even if the gallery itself is not prestigious, walk-in traffic could include real collectors. However, the likelihood that shows at these "vanity galleries" (as they are sometimes called) will be reviewed is almost nonexistent, and sales are also iffy at best. Meyer Tannenbaum, a painter in New York City who has paid to have his work exhibited at New Century Artists three times, sold two small paintings for $200 apiece during his best show; "I've never sold enough to make the rent" he points out. Naomi Campisi, president of the Artists League of Brooklyn, which has shown its work at Broome Street Gallery, said that "if we sell two pieces, that's good. Usually, it's more like one piece, or maybe nothing at all."

However, sales and write-ups may not be the point. "A lot of out-of-towners and people from other countries want a New York credential on their resumes," said Caroll Michels, an artists' career advisor in East Hampton, New York. "They assume that saying their work was exhibited in SoHo will impress people back home. Maybe it will." Manhattan Fine Art Storage, which has two gallery spaces that rent for $75 and $125 per day, regularly places a "Have a show in SoHo," advertisement in popular art magazines for just that reason. Michels notes, however, that there may be a valid reason to rent a gallery space to show one's work: "You may have some people who want very much to see your work, but you don't have a place suitable to show it. In that case, renting a gallery simply solves a problem, and the costs are likely to be offset by sales or whatever you're expecting from the people you're showing the work to."

Recently, even traditional galleries have begun pressuring artists to pay for their shows. Artists may be asked to pay one-half or even more of the costs in putting on the exhibit, which may reach $3,000 or $4,000 for a three or four-week show. Sometimes, these pay-your-own-way shows are tryouts for artists who want to be represented by the gallery. "I usually go 50-50 with the artists," said Deborah Davis, director of El-Baz Gallery in SoHo. "Artists may not want to think about how salable their work is, but I have to. Artists may think that their work should be shown in museums, but I have to know if it will appeal to people who walk in off the street. You take a flying leap into the unknown with many artists, and you know that sales will be less than the costs of putting up the show."

Another SoHo dealer, who asked not to be named, asked, "How can you invest in someone whose return on your investment is likely to be zero? We're not a communist country; everything isn't free. Artists have to be willing to help out in the costs or else they're living in some fairy tale." With escalating rents, dealers claim, many galleries are not in a position to give young artists a show without the financial assistance of the artists. Katharine T. Carter, an artists' advisor, stresses that artists and dealers "need to be in a shared business relationship"; both parties must agree on what they want and how they are going to pay for it. Carter suggests that artists should approach "emerging talent galleries" with a budget, "equal to what you would pay a part-time secretary, say $8,000-$10,000." That money would be used to publish postcards, a full-color catalogue with an essay, press mailings for the show, and post-show catalogue mailings to museum curators and dealers around the country. For Carter, as well as many artists and dealers, this is what it means for artists to invest in their careers.

Pay in order to play is certainly a well-known theme in artists' lives: most juried competitions require an entry fee, Coop galleries entail the payment of an annual membership plus monthly dues and all the costs of organizing and promoting an artist's show, and many online galleries charge set-up and maintenance fees. The art world also has a lot of what could be called victimless crimes. For instance, critics are often hired to write privately published catalogue essays for artists they never heard of before and to whom they may never ever pay attention to again. One editor at Art in America has written a number of these essays for artists whose work would never appear in that magazine, although the artists who pay for the editor's implicit endorsement ("a dollar a word is the going rate," the editor said) will proudly display the editor's review. Though the artist is happy and the editor is happy, it's a fool's bargain: Critics and editors will associate their names with these artists not because they believe in them but precisely because they expect the artists will never be heard of again. They wouldn't want their words thrown back at them years later.

The bottom line: be careful with your career-investments. All investments are of course a form of risk-taking (some might say gambling), but the better risks tend to be researched and evaluated. Before you pay for an exhibition space, online show, or review, talk to artists who have made that same investment before. Did it make a difference to their career? Would they have received the same effect from showing their work in a coffee shop instead of a paid gallery? The art world offers many opportunities for one's money to flow freely; just make sure your money flows in the right direction for your career.

©Daniel Grant 2002

Daniel Grant is an art consultant and journalist who writes about the practical side of being an artist. His articles have appeared in American Artist Magazine, ARTNews, Art in America, and The New York Times among others. He is the author of The Artist's Guide-Making It in New York City, The Artist's Resource Handbook, The Business of Being an Artist, The Fine Artist's Career Guide, How to Start and Succeed as an Artist, and The Writer's Resource Handbook, all published with Allworth Press.

Allworth Press is an independent book publisher specializing in business, legal, and career advice for artists and creative professionals.

This article was originally created for TheArtBiz.com. It appears on NYFA Interactive courtesy of the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Library.

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