Ask Mat!

Special guest blogger Mat Gleason has been slogging in the art trenches for inumerable years (not that he's like, OLD or anything), wrote "Most Art Sucks", and is the driving force behind Coagula art magazine out of L.A. He has a column called "Ask Mat" where he breaks the art world down for artists. He graciously agreed to hook us up...gotta question? Ask Mat!

Dear Mat,
I am an artist. I feel I am ready for a gallery show, but I have never exhibited before. When I talk to galleries they seem snobby. What can I do?

Bathing and proper hygiene are the first order of business. After that,
looking good and being rich cannot hurt too much either. But the reason they
seem snobby to you is that you do not know them anymore than they know you.
Get to know each other. Get to know the art world. A gallery owner is not
going to go with an unknown quantity. It is like asking a shopkeeper to
devote ten percent of his or her store to selling your new invention. The
shopkeeper is not going to even know if there is a market for your
invention, let alone how that would affect the business that has already
been built up selling other products. Until you are a known entity in the art
world on an at least an interpersonal level, you may as well be the
manufacturer of invisible horse carriages. Nobody but Cinderella will need or
want or know about what you make. And, by the way, waiting around for
Cinderella to find you is like waiting for your fairy godmother to find you
as well. Get out, get known, make great art and let people that you know see
that great art.

Gratuitous plug: LISTEN TO Mat Gleason on Artscene Visual Radio, where his monthly show THE MAT GLEASON SEVEN keeps you up to date on the art world's most important developments. Seriously.