A gallery (plural: galleries) is a type of exhibition space. Galleries are usually specialized and focus on one or more artistic disciplines, such as painting, sculpture, photography, or digital art. In addition to exhibiting and selling artworks, they often manage the careers of their artists, collaborate with public and private collectors, cultural institutions, media and the wider professional art world both locally and internationally. This extensive and complex mission is a costly effort that requires tremendous creativity and strategy to successfully manage and advance the careers of visual artists.
For example, if an artist has been in the gallery system for a while and has built up a large number of collectors, he may be able to sell his work through the gallery directly. In this case, the gallery will take a percentage of each sale to cover its costs.
The gallery can also collaborate with an artist to represent their works for a period of time. This means that the gallery will agree to promote, sell and distribute the artworks in their possession and will help the artist build his career, collector base and artist resume. In return, the artist will give the gallery a commission on all sales.
Most of the time, the gallery will only collaborate with living artists as they are easier to deal with, but in some cases, they will purchase art from estates or from other galleries at auction, and then resell it to their clients. This is called the secondary market.
Another important part of the job of a gallery is that it will present their artists to broader professional networks, such as public and corporate collections, art fairs, museums, biennials, and salons to increase their global visibility. This is a significant and expensive effort that takes many years to establish.
Aside from showcasing the work of their artists, galleries will usually provide educational services to their clients such as art classes, talks, and workshops. They might also have an archive of catalogues, monographs and other publications to help people learn more about art history and the various disciplines within contemporary and modern art. They might also offer advice and guidance to collectors to assist them in forming and growing their art collection. They might even help them understand the different aspects of the art market and how to appraise and value their art.