Art in The Ghetto
I wanted to take a minute to share two thoughts about trying to break into the exclusive club of galleries. In addition, I’m working on my hip slang to keep up with the kids in 2020 so I will be working those in periodically. To help you make sense of this non-sense, here is a guide:
Extra = over the top
Snatched = cool
Fetch = hip
imo= in my opinion
Karen = The “I want to speak to your manager” know it all lady
Weird Flex = show off something dumb
No cap = for real
Lowkey = on the down Low
Highkey = “like, seriously”
IMO = in my opinion
Slay = be awesome
Straight fire = the best
Spill the tea = tell the gossip
Shook = bothered by something, concerned
Curve = rejecting someone
LMIRL = Let’s Meet in Real Life.
Sus = “suspect” or “suspicious”
1. Circular reasoning is so fetch. What’s up with that?
We as humans have made things so much harder for each other with our complete acceptance of circular reasoning and it is seriously sus. This happens in lots of places, the art gallery isn’t the only one.
Let me start with another example… when I was a kid my dad wanted to get his Commercial Drivers License and he worked hard, studied, and passed the test. Once he had the license, he couldn’t find a job because every job wanted him to have experience first, #curve. How was he supposed to get experience if no one would give him the opportunity without having experience? It’s totally one of those things you tell people when you just don’t want to deal with them imo.
Fast forward to 2020 and we will spill the tea. My husband is an artist (www.dsclarke.com). He has never shown his work in a gallery because he struggled with the process to contact them. So, SUPER wife to the rescue, I thought I could highkey help him out and start contacting galleries pretending to be him (oh don’t give me that look, we all do it).
Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t some snatched ones that don’t meet the generalization that is being described in this post, but of course it’s hard to tell in the time of COVID. This is really not the ideal time to be trying to put ANYTHING out in the world so maybe that is why I haven’t found one…
BUT…
There are a number of galleries (and I no cap looked at many across the nation) that are accepting artist submissions that will only take a look at your work if you have previously been in a gallery.
Seriously?! What kinda weird flex is that?
2. Why would you want to limit something that is so limitless by nature?
Where is the drive for new artists to change the face of art today?
Why are we not pushing the envelope to find the next Basquiat NOW, while they are still alive?
Who are these people that they can only tell if art is good if someone else in the fancy schmancy club of gallery professionals has called it straight fire first?
Now there is an exception if you have or are working on your master’s degree in art… I am all about higher ed, but this has me shook. Hasn’t some of the greatest art in history come out of ghetto’s, poverty, and lack of opportunity?
And so my conclusion:
Maybe that’s the end game?
By withholding opportunity from all but the elite, it only fuels the art of those who are downtrodden thereby driving the underground art culture. How “extra” is that circular reasoning now?! Then “they” can identify the art posthumously and not have to diversify their own experience.
Or maybe I’m just extra…
Now lowkey, I get that not all art that people would submit is good and there has to be a way to filter out some of the junk. Trust me, there are people in my life whose art doesn’t slay either, but you don’t cut off everyone’s because you might get some bad art. Not to be a Karen, but your job is to assess art, right?
But I digress, my husband’s art really is not that. Like really–really. Which means that this argument is mute.
My point IS, let’s stop with the hoity toity galleries and their arbitrary rules about required gallery or job experience and formal education backgrounds when it is not needed. Let’s start investing in art that portrays the diverse souls of people from ALL backgrounds and life experiences.
The End.
One day, LMIRL. (Had to get in one last one)
*off the soap box and back to work*
Originally published at https://married2art.wp.txstate.edu on October 27, 2020.
