As an emerging artist being aware of Galleries that would suit your work and developing a good relationship with one or two is a good way to boost your exposure to a wider audience for you work. Most galleries have an online shop as well in person sales in their physical gallery space.

For me, I would need to develop a connection with Galleries that are interested in animal, or more specifically equine art. I would also need Galleries that are interested in 3D work as well as 2D, and those that are interested in the quirky processes of creating art that combine one or two processes and different mediums.

Most galleries charge commissions on the work they sell which is usually around the 30%-50%. This is important to note when making your financial predictions because it is a cost of sale, and cost to your business. In once sense it reduces your taxable income, as in the UK we get charged on net profit. However, this means there is a possibility you are not covering your direct costs and overheads of your own art practice fully. Also, whatever price you sell at in a Gallery needs to be the same as your own website, espcially if you have a run of a limited edition print for example. It’s bad business practice to undercut a gallery, and not necessarily good business sense to over inflate your selling price because you need to cover the overheads and direct costs to ensure you’ve got enough money to live on.

Some Galleries run as collective like the Skylark Gallery in London. They are artist led and you pay a fee to join. They don’t charge commission but you sign up to do a day in the Gallery every 3 weeks. You fill out a form to apply to join. https://skylarkgalleries.com/pages/join-the-collective We have a smaller collective local to me in Cheddar, https://www.theartsquarter.com this is a smaller scale, but local artists can rent a shelf or wall space to sell their artwork. They occasionally have artist studios to hire and hold exhibitions and workshops. These type of galleries are a great way for solo practicitioners to develop a network and feel part of a wider community.

Having researched Galleries I would love to get my work in somewhere like the Rose Gallery in Northampton. They have a variety of artists in 3D and 2D work, but for me it’s their audience. They have a stand at some of the major equestrian events throughout the year. So for me it is a dream gallery for gaining exposure to my genre of work. https://www.therosegallery.co.uk/pages/gallery-event-calendar

More local, in Bristol is the Gala Fine Art Gallery. They support emerging artists and are interested in artists with distinct and expressive styles. Especially if they use painting with other creative processesses such as photograph transfer, screen printing and collage. Like most galleries across the country they have dedicated artist pages, arrange pop up exhibitions, and promote their artists at Art Fairs. https://www.galafineart.uk/

Being involved with a Gallery has a lot of positives if you find the right one for your work, you gain more exposure, you are part of a community, and can put on solo or joint exhibitions. Also, it can be expensive hiring space at Art Fairs etc and it is a way to help with the cost, especially if you do not have enough work to fill even the smallest space available.

I will be reaching out to the two Galleries above, hopefully manage to visit in person. To do that I need to get my branding organised and my website up and running, and a small portfolio of current works that I can share.