Slowly and carefully – the pitfalls of calls for art
One of my goals for 2024 is to get additional gallery representation – not the easiest task in the world, and I am readying myself for rounds of rejections.
Still – in order to spend more time making art, and to be able to afford to do it to begin with, I need to find people who can help me sell it. So in January, I entered 5 calls for art (for specific exhibitions – not gallery “representation”). 1 was real world, 4 online/virtual exhibitions:
- Argyle Fine Art – a gallery about 5 hours from me in Halifax. The call for art for their annual Pre-Shrunk show. 2 of the 5 pieces I entered were accepted – wish it could have been all 5, but I’m new and unknown to them, so I was happy with that.
- Create Magazine – Annual Women’s issue 2024 – still pending decision
- Viali Art Competition (online) – unusual, as they decided they did not receive enough entries to make the competition “real” – that is awarding prizes when there are very few entries is not any kind of acknowledgement that is worthwhile. They’ve refunded (most of) my entry fee – respect for that and for trying to advance Canadian artists (even if apparently too many of us are too lazy/cheap/ambitious enough to try)
- Artstonish Magazine (online and print) – flat out rejection. Entry was free (paid if selected) so I can only imagine the competition for this was fierce.
- Valentine – Gallerium Magazine (online only) – Accepted my painting “Love affair” (of course, Valentine’s Day theme and all that).
I got what I feel to be an acceptable level of acceptance vs rejection from these calls – the “real world” acceptance was the most important to me. I’m hoping that in spite of the fact that these 2 pieces have not sold (yet), the gallery might consider representing me in the future. OR, give me advice / guidance on next steps.
The last, for which my work was accepted, is slightly suspicious. You see, I’ve since received an excessive number of invitations to enter from them that I feel it can’t be real. Of course they are happy to take my $40USD each time I enter one of their calls – it’s a fabulous way to make money. I think these guys (Gallerium/Biafarin) are slipping into the realm of vanity galleries. Yes sure it gets my work online, but that’s easy. There are 49 artworks from 49 artists, and the claimed number of unique visits is … 4,949. Which doesn’t seem to be changing. So I think I have fallen prey to this one. It wasn’t a large investment of course, not like some vanity galleries which ask for hundreds of dollars in fees for the “opportunity”, but still – so many invitations – seems odd. I also note that neither of these entities is promoting the exhibition in any way! All they are doing is promoting more and more “opportunities”. The traffic online to this show is virtually nil.
SO there’s the lesson – do a bit more research before entering any calls for art. I came across this call on the Café site (callforentry.org) and trusted that it was a real call. Turns out that was a mistake. Overall my experience with these calls has been positive, so I will slowly and carefully research each call. I’m also trialling out the “Pilot Art List” – which for a small monthly fee sends out researched Canadian and US calls for art. It was recommended by an art consultant on Instagram as “legit”, so we’ll see how that goes. (She also seems “legit” btw… but it’s so easy to “seem” something online isn’t it?) Anyway, 8 months of that list delivered to me is the equivalent of 1 shady call for art – seems a bargain.
Anyway, after a brief hiatus from the studio I shall venture back there today. The first thing I need to tackle is cleaning and organising, then hopefully get messy with some new paintings – I’m feeling a winter landscape coming on.