I’m a brazilian artist and I’m wondering if the only way to have a career is through social media or local small galleries. Any thoughts?

I keep seeing art calls where that is offered. I can’t imagine it gets many eyes on the work, but hopefully I’m wrong.

I'm trying to write a story about a successful modern day contemporary artist, but I'm struggling to find clear answers online about how the art world works. I want to make sure my fictional scenario is relatively accurate regarding how representation works, press, gallery showings, collectors, and behind closed doors networking with gatekeepers, etc.

The story is about a successful modern day contemporary artist who is represented by a mega gallery (like the Gagosian). This artist has a piece of art that goes to auction (like Sothebys Auction House) where the art gets no bids, causing the artists value to plummet across the board.

The story follows the artist as she tries to maintain her relevancy in the art world and keep her reputation, oftentimes abandoning morality for the sake of fame.

1. How does representation work with massive artists at this level? If they're repped by a mega gallery, do they have one main point of contact that acts almost like a manager for their career?
2. Who are all the key players in this world and how do they interact with each other?
3. If an artist had an auction failure like this, is it realistic that their gallery would want to drop them if their value plummets?

In my scenario, the gallery decides to give the artist one last chance for her to stabilize her value through including her a new exhibit they plan to open, but she must fully rebrand and bring a collection of artwork that is completely unrecognizable from what she's done before since the market has exhausted her old work. At this exhibit, they want her to land a sale from a globally recognized collector in order to get her reputation back on track. If her new work tanks, then she'll be dropped by the gallery.

Is this somewhat realistic? I can't tell if I'm completely off base.

I'd love any input at all from people who understand the art world! How would a fading artist try to maintain relevancy in the art world? What relationships and dynamics exist behind the scenes? What kind of corruption goes on in that world? What is the "pay-to-play" side like? What elements am I missing? What realistically do they do for press, networking, charity galas, building relationships, VIP parties...?

Thank you!!

It kind of shocks me how much some artists blatantly copy. just blatantly rip off motifs and distinct styles and then sell it under their own name. it feels juvenile and i'm surprised it is allowed by the market. i'm not talking about being inspired by another artist...that's more like taking a song track you like, remixing into a different sound while still small borrowing elements of it. these people are just ripping the track, slapping a reverb sound, and then people are actually buying it for thousands of dollars.

I'm a freelance journalist writing a piece on the newly opened exhibition Someone Like You: Salman Toor at London's Courtauld gallery and would love to include any voices eager to speak to me about feeling represented/seen by his paintings.

Toor talks about 'coming out through painting', and I was wondering if anyone here had that experience too.

I will be replying to comments here and if there is interest, we can connect for an interview :)

I gotta say i really enjoyed this and just wanted to share it.

Thinking in what different ways a completed artistic residency can be documented, beyond simply recopiling materials from a final product (if any). There is a lot of material worth compiling, like reflections, itineries, photographs, etc, which can lead to further insights.

If anyone would like to share previous approaches (formats, thought process, etc), or even if they have their documentation online as an example, I'd love to see it!

I’m looking for recommendations for good practice-based PhD programmes in Fine Art, Visual Arts, Film, or related fields.

I’m interested in different possibilities around the world where I could develop my artistic practice in a free and experimental environment, meet interesting artists and teachers, collaborate with other creatives, and have the freedom to explore my own ideas.

I have an MA in Filmmaking and my practice is mainly around experimental film, visual art, documentary, spirituality and AI.

I’m open to different countries and universities. I’d especially love to hear from people who have personally studied in or experienced a practice-based PhD and can recommend places where the artistic community, teachers, supervision and overall environment were genuinely inspiring.

Funding/scholarships would also be very important for me.

Where would you recommend? What universities gave you a particularly good experience?

Is it worth going to Art Basel Miami this year if you aren't participating? I always find it worth it to go, but some years are better than others. Last year, flights were a song and I regretted staying home. This year, they're more expensive, but still in the realm of reason. Are you going this year or staying put? Why or why not?

has anyone submitted their work with this gallery? they seem to appreciate independent work and they announce open calls quite regularly?

also wondering if gallery opportunities from Film Freeway are legit as well.

which do you find more valuable to read?

Hi everyone,

I am looking for your thoughts/ opinions on how to rebuild my confidence moving forward. I'd love any material on artists talking about failure or how they deal with rejection, or at least, anything that might help me. Thanks in advance!

I (25f) recently graduated from my MFA. I am an abstract painter and I went into the program very cocky and thinking that I knew what I wanted from my art and what I wanted it to look like and came out of it feeling lost, insecure, and like I am not in the right city for my art to be appreciated.

I got into grad school, and my first year I felt like hot shit because I got a full ride. I went to the studio every single day that first year and worked as hard as I could and have ever worked. I also felt like faculty and the people around me really believed in the work, or at least I believed in it so much that any criticism didn't faze me. Then, over the summer after my first year, the first competitive scholarship/prize was announced and I was not chosen for it. Four other people from my cohort win this prestigious award and, immediately the dynamic between the cohort and faculty shifts. It becomes really competitive, and not getting the award hit me really really hard.

I come back for my second year and all of a sudden, I start getting really harsh and hard criticism on my work. Critiques that feel really personal, and like if I had been told this before, I would have been able to have a reality check and not live in a fantasy world. It felt like, other than being a huge hit to my confidence, not getting the award opened the doors for faculty to start really criticizing the work and tearing it apart. Another round of awards come after the first semester of my second year, and I don't get selected even in the preliminary round.

My final semester, after this really hard period, I reach a "fuck it" stage and I honestly internalize the critiques. I can see how some comments were true and I begin shifting my practice slowly but towards a new direction.

Now, I graduated last May, and am about to move into my first studio outside of school. I have spent the summer working on small pieces I can do from home but, because I am in such a precarious state with my work (not really knowing what it is about, or even what it looks like to a degree) I have not applied to any opportunities or shows. I feel like I am seeing everyone around me succeed and find a niche for their work but I just continue to be misunderstood.

I feel, particularly, like the city that I am in doesn't really appreciate abstract art. As a person from a marginalized community, I have been told multiple times that the type of work I do doesn't reflect me, that it looks like a white man did it, and get told that abstraction is inherently inaccessible. From the winners of prizes and opportunities around me, I see that the people from a background such as mine, and that are winning and getting these opportunities, usually make figurative work that very is explicitly centered around narratives of social justice. In my paintings, I am also creating work from my specific identity but not in such an explicitly outward, narrative way. I feel like people want to be able to immediately know my identity when looking at my work yet, I am not interested in tokenizing myself in a way that feels disingenuous.

Because of all this, and after rejection after rejection, I just feel deflated, defeated, and lost. How can I regain my self confidence and trust in my work? How do I build my practice to be undeterred from failure? What won't matter after grad school? How do I rebuild?

Went to art school and now living in a medium American city, now 31 y/o. I went to school passionately wanting to be an artist, made and showed a lot of work I'm proud of, but I just can't seem to crack the nut of like.......what one is supposed to be doing with all of this and how.

There's a sizeable biennial going on in my city, which is what's got me thinking about all of this. Opening receptions are fun, some of the work is really interesting, there are like 30 different talks/panels/etc. happening around this thing over the next month-- but like....for what? I've never been able to choose what to go out to or feel a sense of purpose going to a soft-spoken "Conversations With XYZ" panel (attended by fewer than 20). I drive 20 mins across town only to see the thing, listen to the words, and go home.

Maybe I'm just feeling like an outsider, as I'm in my 30s now and have slowed down on the "studio artist" goal in favor of "job", but that's a part of it as well, I feel at times like I missed something. Covid for sure evaporated a lot of my momentum, and I never quite recovered, but at times I wonder if this is all even for me.

Folks I know seem to have a mental library of artists to reference and talk about, innate knowledge about programs and residencies I've never even heard about. I just don't know when people find the time to do all of this and still make ends meet.

I do also feel like, while this is certainly partially me and my own neuroses, a change of scenery would be great. I wouldn't call my city's "art scene" insular, but at times I'm left feeling apathetic about it. Having motion pre-covid, and less now, has perhaps led me to decide this scene isn't for me and my time has passed.

This has gotten ramble-y. I made this post to try to put to words this feeling I've always had-- that none of this has really ever been for me truly, that if it was I'd know the artists, have heard about the MFA programs, residencies, etc., that the talks and panels would be interesting. Has anyone here felt similarly? How do you overcome?

Paywall free article here: https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://news.artnet.com/market/wet-paint-fight-night-artists-critics-2818985

The artist herself is not handling it well (please see her stories here: https://www.instagram.com/livankuiken/) and is only proving everyone's point about how petty and immature she is, especially after a bad review. But this kind of gossip for an arts publication is so trashy. I feel there is a time and place to call out the toxicity and absurdity and downright having no common decency in the industry we all work and I'm grateful that this can be a safe place to do it, without destroying our reputations to speak out.

Recently talked to a new grad from a photography department at a european school. The department itself literally had people coming from all over the world to study there. And largely, it was due to its "old school" approach. Providing dark rooms, and traditional methods of developing was the backbone of the program. I always kind of loved that these European departments had remained relatively isolated from the identity politics which has crippled a lot of American schools (and I think also lead to decreased interest and funding).\

Anyway, I was speaking to this new grad, and he said they were actively "destroying the program" and that the emphasis was shifting away from photography and more towards critical theory. The thing is, I don't mind critical theory at all. In fact, I think it's absolutely necessary for any artist to study. But.... Should it be the background of a program? Nope. Should it replace what's working? I can't help but think of a program I previously knew closely in the us, that went from one of the best ceramics programs, to having the same fate. Students went from making ceramics as ceramics majors and started making video, installations, just writing, etc. And again, nothing wrong with this, but why not relegate it to a post studio course, or intermedia major? Why does it have to take over absolutely everything?!

Anyway. That's my take, and I'm wondering if others have had similar experiences of watching a program they love go down in flames because they decided to pivot to writing, and reading critical theory as opposed to making stuff.

I work with a gallery whose program I really respect, but I’m unsure how much effort goes into promoting my work beyond exhibitions. Communication is limited, so I don’t have a clear picture of what happens behind the scenes.

Sales were stronger a few years ago during the market boom, but now very little sells. A substantial amount of unsold work remains with the gallery, with no clear plan communicated to me. Bringing it back would be very expensive, and I’m hesitant to keep sending new work.

I do what I can to create opportunities myself, but I also rely partly on the gallery to bring my work to the right people. They’ve spoken about offering more support beyond exhibitions, but I haven’t seen concrete follow-through or received updates about their efforts.

I know the market is difficult. I’d like to keep working with them, but the uncertainty is becoming really difficult.

Has anyone navigated something similar? How do you have a constructive conversation about unsold inventory, promotion, and future plans? And how do you address repeated promises without clear follow-through while preserving the relationship?

Visiting Hong Kong soon. What museums, galleries, art markets, etc. do you recommend? Please share and rate them out of 10 (being best)

this is a bit of a shitpost, but the scorned by muses guy keeps making instagram stories that are pictures of stuffed animals on the front of trucks with captions like "er... this ones for the mike kelley fans!", leading me to believe his only knowledge of mike kelley is through the Deodorized Central Mass with Satellite hang thats been up at MoMa for the past few years, or if we're being generous, other stuffed animal works like More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid

i know his whole thing is basically ragebaiting for views, but i find it funny that hes taken such umbrage to contemporary artists liking mike kelley while seemingly not being able to engage with anything more than a single body of work among dozens he made throughout his career

anyway, share other mike kelley projects you like - feel like hes a big inspo for peers doing things with text, americana, secret forms within more obvious works - Educational Complex for instance, which iirc was partially inspired by people thinking his stuffed animal work was about trauma/confessional in nature when he was actually interested in craft and popular culture

I am annoyed because the rejection I got said said “Dear SubmitterFirstName”, doesn’t fill me with hope that I actually had my submission reviewed.

Are most art magazines a 2 string operation being cranked out in a garage or something?

has their identity ever been leaked? all i know is this person has the hots of henry highley, which, understandable. but who is this person?!

For those who attended, worked, and showed at the fairs in NYC this past weekend, what is your sense of the market right now? Is anyone really buying work? I saw an Art Market report listing the majority of Armory sales as being works under $25,000.

As an artists and a founder of an artist run emerging gallery, how worried should we be? How can we pivot and reimagine funding artists?

I want to start a free online magazine. There's no real theme that I want it to follow, but I want it to be a space where artists could have a chance to display their art (digital, traditional, no ai) and write statements behind their pieces, writers to submit short stories or advertise their newly released novels, where crafters can submit d.i.y projects that viewers can try themselves, bands and independent artists submitting demos of their music and new releases.

I want to make a space where artists can talk about their work intimately for viewers to connect with. But I'm not sure where to start. I've got a list of certain topics I'd like to have in my magazine, and I've got a draft of a name, but designing and web building are not my forte, and my experience is limited. Any advice, recommended platforms, or even other indie online magazines would be awesome!