How can I successfully sell my art while also having gallery representation?

You don’t have to choose one or the other — you can do both intelligently. First, understand that I’ve never met a legal revenue source for artists I don’t like. If galleries are working and bringing in money, that’s great. However, selling only through galleries is problematic long-term because you don’t know who’s buying your work, so you can’t build a collector base. Here’s how to navigate it: approach your gallery and propose keeping the same 50-50 revenue split for anything you sell direct from your own website, and offer to let them audit your sales. Explain that your own marketing efforts — growing your email list, social media, website — will actually drive more foot traffic to their gallery. Alternatively, you can sell completely separate bodies of work (originals in the gallery, prints on your site, or vice versa). Most galleries are actually excited about artists with their own following because it proves demand and brings people in. Be upfront, have the conversation, and structure it so everyone wins. This gives you optionality and builds your own collector database for the long term.

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Asked by an artist with multiple gallery representations · Answered by Patrick · Art Business Webinar · 2026-08-24