So, I had my first art show...

[hipsterdufus]

And I sold one piece... to my parents. :o

So, basically, this was a "50 for 50" art show. This means that there were 50 pieces of art for sale for $50 apiece (the "50 for 50" is a bit of a misnomer; I would say that there were over 100 pieces there). I had 4 pieces in the show.

There were some amazing artists there; some great illustrations, paintings etc. To me, the $50 price tag seemed to be far too inexpensive for much of the work, considering the quality and the effort that a lot of folks had put into it. And yet... very few pieces sold from any artist. The most successful artist (sold 4 of about 8 pieces) was a talented young illustrator who was still in college. I actually bought one of his pieces. The show went from 6-10pm on a Saturday in an artist's studio in downtown Grand Rapids. It seemed that most of the attendees were friends or family of the artists who were exhibiting there.

The pieces that I had put in the show were black & white double exposures of my model covered in a gauzy material against the background of a dark sky (red filter over the lens). I'll post them up when I get home. I was really going for kind of a "ghost" effect; pretty typical for a double exposure, I suppose.

Anyway, it was a lot of work to get ready for the show. In retrospect, I wonder if it was really worth it. The reaction to my pieces seemed relatively positive, but I always wonder how much smoke people are blowing up my "you-know-what". Given that the only piece I sold was to my parents, I came away from the show disheartened and (to be honest) a little depressed about my work. Is this lack of sales pretty typical for an art show? What have your experiences been putting on a show of your work?

[silverbullet]

"The longest journey starts with the first step....."

Congrats to your first exhibition!
As a (very proud) father of a young and talented:rolleyes: guy who is studying illustration I must say that the road you hit is long and hard.....

Try to get as much contacts as possible and try to get somewhere a space to hang your work.
In case of my son it was a café in his town and he could sell just one pic.

Due to the 'snow-ball-effect' more and more people get some knowledge about your work and the stone gets rolling......
The place which you described was too crowded with other work so it's not so easy for visitors to keep the head clean. Don't give up and keep selfconfidence even it's not easy:)

Here a link to Philipp, now in Cracow in an exchange program by Erasmus, the european students exchange program:

http://philippbanken.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-02-07T14%3A07%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=20

His linol cuts he is selling as 4-colour sets in DIN A2.

Good luck!
Bernd

[gnuyork]

I had a photography show 2 years ago. I spent a lot of time printing, matting and framing the work (mostly inkjet, but I has some silver prints as well). I ended up with around 40 framed prints for the show. The response was overwhelmingly positive. One guy even gave me a compliment stating that every one of my prints in the show was as good as or better than the Ansel Adams book he had sitting on his coffee table - great compliment, though I don't tend to agree with with that completely.

Anyhow - not one print sold. Zero. It sure was a lot of work and expense for no return, though the satisfaction of seeing my work hung up, and the turn out at the open were quite gratifying. It was also nice to talk to strangers about my work and methods.

Would I do it again? Maybe...

[gnuyork]

I forgot. I actually have work in another show right now. it's about to end this month, and so far no calls for sales. I have 8 pieces in it. There was virtually no effort involved with this one because I used the images from the same show as mentioned above.

The nice thing about having a big show with no sales is you have work already done for the next show.

[Pickett Wilson]

Shows are kind of like books, you rarely make money off them. I think of them as icing on the cake, rather than the cake itself. :)

[hipsterdufus]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I really believe in a lot of the work that I have been doing recently, so it was disappointing that no one thought it was worthy enough to hang in their home. But, I'm glad to know that other folks have been through a similar situation.

I was initially wary of doing the show (I was invited by a friend), as my photography has always been done for my own enjoyment. Putting it out for others for the first time really felt like I was putting this great secret of mine out on display for the world to see. I didn't have any bad reactions (that I know of), but I was perhaps a little oversensitive to how my work would be received.

Btw, Bernd, your son is incredibly talented. I particularly like his self-portraits.

[silverbullet]

Thanks! :)

BTW: My wife and I visited him in Cracow. Woww! What a nice town. Here some pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36573929@N00/sets/72157625122557105/

Cheers
Bernd

[sonofdanang]

hipsterdufus,

Congratulations on your show. Even if you didn't sell anything (took me several shows before I sold a print), I would hazard a guess that you've gone farther in terms of production than the vast majority of forum members who might have similar ambitions.

A friend of mine who is a practicing mathematician would say, one show does not constitute a sample set. It helps if you have a patron who is an informed critic, collector, or gallery owner - generally it takes a while to establish to people who don't know you that you are a) serious, and b) therefore in it for the long haul. That hasn't changed since a little while after the first cave paintings. And even then we're not sure...

So, continue to build a body of work, remaining firm in your artistic principles, striving only to produce the best work you possibly can. Continue to mount shows and, whatever you do, do not equate artistic success with commercial success. Sometimes they are co-located, but rarely are they intrinsically co-related.

Remember, the only person who really knows if you succeeded in your goals pertaining to the quality of your work is you. Other people might know if they want to purchase a piece based on how the work strikes them, but even the most able patron/critics will have only a sliver of awareness of whether you were essentially successful in achieving your aims with regard to a visual language. Again, commercial sales is not necessarily a valid measure.

[shadowfox]

If your goal is to sell prints, then an art-show is not the best way to achieve it. Build relationship with your local art stores instead, and work your butt-off to produce the best -- professionally mounted and signed -- prints.

Having your work shown in public, however is a *good* way to get feedback.

One trick is to filter those based on two criteria:

1. Does the feedback giver have any reason to praise you regardless (your parents, is an obvious example). In other words, find the most objective viewers in the show and take a note on what they think about your work. Engage them in a discussion, you'll find out in five sentences whether they actually mean what they say or just blowing smoke.

2. How much do they know about your style of photography. If you're getting an intense criticism from a fashion photographer regarding your landscape photos, you can safely store those in your memory for future references, but don't count on it for immediate improvements.

Don't be disappointed, there are millions of one-hit-wonders, the ones who persevere are the ones who will make the most impact in the end.

Keep on.

[hipsterdufus]

You should be a motivational speaker, sonofdanang. :) Thanks for the pick-me-up.

Most of the responses that I received were kind of bland, "Wow, that's really cool" type of comments. I really like shadowfox's idea of directing the dialog more towards criticism of the pieces in order to find ways to improve. I was so nerved-up, I did a pretty poor job of trying to solicit critiques. Perhaps next time.

I think I just need to be better about soliciting critique in general and appreciate the reminder to do so. I've just got to get out of my comfort zone, as I'm a fairly private person.

[sonofdanang]

I think I just need to be better about soliciting critique in general and appreciate the reminder to do so. I've just got to get out of my comfort zone, as I'm a fairly private person.

I too, according to my wife, am a sociable hermit. Not necessarily a bad thing. Exposing your work to critique - and worse - can be challenging. You've probably read it, but might I suggest E.H. Gombrich's The Story Of Art. Good critique requires an understanding, at least on an intuitive level, of the progression of visual languages and these were in development long before photography came on the scene.

Shadowfox is correct about filtering critique. There is always agenda. Picking the one that serves the work best is the key.

[Brian Levy]

Of course you got names, addresses and numbers of those who attended and their interests such as still life, animals, etc.