Can I really make a living selling through galleries without doing my own marketing?

No. The dream of getting into galleries, doing no marketing, and making a great living while galleries sell for you is one of the biggest lies in this industry. Less than 0.4% of artists make over $1,000,000 per year this way. Even looking at artists making $100,000-$900,000, it still doesn’t reach 1%. These odds are as bad as playing the lottery. The gallery model is exploitative—you take a 50% haircut on every sale, have no business stability, don’t build a collector list, and have no control. It’s a path to failure for the vast majority. Additionally, even when you do get into galleries, you have no guarantee of consistent year-over-year growth or the ability to retire on what you’ve built.

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Asked by general teaching · Answered by Patrick Shanahan and Nick Friend · art-marketing-podcast · 2022-01-08