A gallery is a space in which art is displayed and offered for sale. It can be a virtual gallery online or a physical place in a town or city. Most galleries specialize in a particular type of art or a specific artist and offer works for sale to the public. Gallery owners are known as art brokers or traders and make a profit on the artworks they sell. They promote and support artists and their careers in return for a commission on sales of the artworks.
The work of a gallery includes curating exhibitions for the public, selling and distributing art, and providing the services to make all this happen. The gallery is also responsible for the educational and cultural aspects of their programming by fostering conversation about contemporary issues through art and providing access to the latest artistic voices in the world.
For an artist, being accepted by a gallery is one of the most important career milestones. The gallery’s role in an artist’s career is to promote and represent them in the art market, thus building their collector base, artist resume and oeuvre. It is common for a gallery to negotiate a long-term collaboration with an artist in which the artist pays the shipping costs from their studio and the gallery covers those fees when selling works.
In addition to organizing and promoting artworks for exhibitions, galleries also handle other activities such as attending art fairs to increase the visibility of their artists in the global art market, arranging book publishing when it is time for an artist monograph, or conducting research to identify future trends in art. They also take care of archival and preservation efforts, making sure that the artworks are handled professionally so they don’t get damaged or disintegrate over time.
As a gallery owner, one of the most important tasks is to ensure that there are enough people visiting and buying the artworks. This is why they organize gallery openings, or vernissages, to inaugurate each exhibition with a festive event. It is at this time when the gallery’s regular visitors come together to discover the new exhibition, talk about it with fellow art enthusiasts and enjoy a glass of wine or champagne.
A good gallery owner will also be able to write a compelling press release, explaining the show in a way that is interesting and engaging for audiences and media. This is a crucial task as it can have a huge impact on whether the public and the press visit, review and buy the artworks in an exhibition.
It is a no-go for the artist to sell their own artworks outside of the gallery during an exhibition. This is considered a conflict of interest and it can damage the relationship between the artist and the gallery. It is the responsibility of the gallery to refer any interested collectors back to the artist, so that both parties can benefit from the transaction.