What are the odds of making it as a professional artist through the traditional gallery model?

The odds of becoming a full-time artist who feeds your family through the traditional gallery model are equivalent to making it to the NBA as a professional basketball player—that’s how bad the odds are. The gallery model works for less than one-tenth of one percent of artists and photographers who try that route. Yes, it worked for some people, just like professional basketball worked for Kobe Bryant and Shaq, but there are 999,000 people their size it didn’t work for. The gallery model has its place, but you need to understand these odds before you stake your livelihood on it. When you contemplate this reality, you’ll naturally invert your thinking toward building a direct business instead. This isn’t to say galleries can’t be part of your business, but relying on them as your primary or sole income source is like buying a lottery ticket as your retirement plan.

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Asked by general teaching point · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2022-03-04