the pleasure, passion,power and panache of painting

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vanity galleries, (pay for exhibiting space)...
...are they worth it?
Another problem painters have to deal with is the quite eccentric habit of high street galleries accepting the
same artists that are already being represented in a number of other galleries - This situation only exacerbates
the difficulties for the newbie and reduces the possibilities of a ‘fresh’ artist to be offered the opportunity of an
exhibition to introduce their work to the buying public.
So, what is an alternative to the favoured High Street galleries for the artists who cannot break the cycle of
rejection, however reluctant that rejection by Galleries maybe. The so called ‘Vanity’ galleries have been
around for decades and over the last two decades they have sprouted up everywhere (globally), in one form or
another. It is rarely they that are bothered or (overly) concerned about the quality of the artists work, the ones
who wish to pay them for their space.
This type of gallery is in the business of renting ‘the space only,’ usually in a well located high street shop,
for a profit. They use a branded banner on the outside and send out invitations of ‘applications,’ usually from
commercially acquired mass emailing lists of artists, ones that are gleaned from, you guessed it, social media
platforms. Some advertise directly on Face Book, or Twitter or others, with attractive wording that will entice
the Artist to go one step further and start a conversation with their ‘curator’ (read Salesman). It’s only when
you actually read the ‘deal’ that you discover that it will cost a ‘shit-load’ of your own money, that you begin to
temper the ego and dreams of exhibiting in a gallery, with that of temper the ego and dreams of exhibiting in a
gallery, with that of your own financial reality. (note: Paid for Fairs are similar in cost construction, except you
are, sort of, *guaranteed an audience - *unlike vanity gallery exhibitions).
Those who are brave and drown out the ‘money’ objection being screamed at them for all corners, convince
themselves that they will ‘break even’ financially- if only given the chance, but usually they have either,
miscalculated the cost, or are unaware of what it takes to ensure a reasonably successful ‘selling’ exhibition.
Or they simply cannot get past the artistic ‘blue-sky’ thinking syndrome. Not so long a go I did a cost
analysis of exhibiting in a ‘pay-for-space’ gallery.
This was based on out of City centre locations with reasonably accurate costs for space, marketing,
transportation and so on. The final figure came out at a cost (to each artist in the case of a shared space)
for a 5 to 6 day exhibition of around £3500. (Large City centre space was nearer double that price, when I
looked further into it). That’s a lot of painting to sell, based at the market average price for a half decent
sized canvas for an unknown painter, at the lower (attractive) ‘stip-end’ market price level of around £350
each. An alternative is to apply to join a co-operative group of fairly established artists. For a relatively small
annual fee (around £250) the problem here is finding a co-operative that doesn’t have hundreds of members.
As the rotation of exhibitions, (within a fixed space), can mean that the reality is you actually only ever
attain one solo show, at best, once every other year. And the visitors are usually made up of the rest of the
‘artist’ members, who rarely buy each others work.