“By the work one knows the workman.”-Jean de la Fontaine

I recently had a Museum of Contemporary Art from a major U.S. city invite me to do some work with them. It is a great honor and definitely something I always wanted to accomplish during my career. So to achieve it right before 40 is, for me, extraordinary. In a lot of ways I feel like I’m at the crossroads as a painter. I’m in this space where I can truly reach people with my work which is such a nice place to be. In the last few months I’ve had so many people both known and unknown tell me what my work means to them and why. It’s really humbling. Unexpected.

I start to think maybe that’s all I really need. Maybe that’s the whole point in and of itself. Just present something sincere that people can explore and enjoy. Concise, succinct. That instant transmission from when I finish a work to when people see it for the first time: that’s the purpose, that’s what art is.  And all of the extraneous needs built up in the modern art-world of what’s ‘art’ and what’s not: the elitist shows, the sycophants, what’s dead or not dead or ‘in the moment’ is just chaff. My work, the people who enjoy it. That’s it. That and a couple of trustworthy dealers/galleries who really believe in me and what I’m trying to do, where I’m going. The last part of that equation might be the most difficult. Because finding a good, reputable dealer is insanely difficult. In the last 5 years or so I have been really fortunate when it comes to the people who show/rep me. Before then it was like 50 miles of bad road. There were so many flakes, jackasses and downright shady people. The people I had to put up with when I was starting out? Well let’s just say I’ve seen pimps with more ethics. At least they just took their cut up front and you knew what the arrangements were from the start.  I’ve known and still do know way too many artists who ended up at the shit end of bad business ethics. Having their work sold and not being paid, having it sold without their consent, having it stolen, damaged, or not sent back.

Part of the problem is that galleries base their business on a subjective and intangible luxury product, which means basically the majority of them hardly generate income. Make money. As a result, dealers stack their roster with too many artists just to sell and make ends meet. Usually what that means is that if you’re not selling well you don’t get pushed no matter how good your work may be. When that happens it becomes difficult to separate the pretenders from the contenders. To know who’s legit and who’s just full of it. Personally I end up taking everything with a grain of salt. For example: I’ve got this dealer down here in the city who really likes my work. Every time I go in to see him and to show him new work I’ve made the guy is over the moon. This guy, right? He tells me that I don’t even know my own potential (I’m pretty sure that I do), and he’s going on about how with my level of work, I could easily be making $90-100k a year. It’s pretty hard for me to get excited. I just cannot take him seriously. It doesn’t mean that I don’t put forward what is required of me, it just means that I don’t give much weight to his predictions. You need a dealer who’s going to believe in what you’re doing. If you’re not careful a lot of them can inadvertently destroy an artists sense of confidence and self-belief. So you’ve got to be resolute. No looking sideways, no turning back. Go forward. Because they can give you a lot of uncertainty and/or negatives without trying to or even realizing it. They’ll put forward questions like: “What are you working on? Have you thought about this? Or that? Do you make this? Why? Why not? You need to work larger or it won’t sell. You need to work smaller or it won’t sell. Do you work in (insert name of medium here)? ” And if you’re an artist of color it gets crazier: “Why don’t you paint more black people? Why don’t you paint more white people?” on and on. I had a dealer recently suggest I go to some life drawing classes even though I was so far ahead of his figurative artists that they couldn’t see me with a telescope. Things like that.

It can really mess with your head. The unspoken implication is that dealers/galleries are on the lookout for the next interesting thing. Yet at the same time, they don’t want to take risks. They don’t want to venture on an unknown or work that might be technically excellent but seem passé. So how does that work? They want the new great unknown from the solid bet, but how you become the solid bet is never explained. It’s just a big grey area that seems for the most part to be composed of hearsay, perception, timing, and random luck. The machinations of the art world can make a bad day at NASDAQ look formulaic, organized, and contrived. It’s almost as if talent and skill level don’t even factor in and that alone can break an artist or send them around the bend.

The artist-gallery relationship is a skewed one that often keeps the majority of people who supply it (artists) poor and broke. And it is exacerbated by art-schools who keep churning out these young kids teaching them that this is the way to go as an artist. “Get a gallery, show show show, kid. Look at Picasso. Just roll out with that grad school diploma, show, and the money is going to come pouring in; Venice Biennial, here we come. You’re RICH bitch!” Granted that does happen. But only for about 0.2% of the population of artists who are fresh out of school. No one is really telling a lot of these kids the real story. Like, hey: One gallery can’t make you as an artist unless you fall in with  a blue-chip dealer that’s going to back you. Or stuff like: “Are you sure you want to be perceived as being at the height of your powers when you’re still in your 20′s as a painter? Or, “What if it takes an additional 5 years (and that’s optimistic) to get into the Whitney? What’s the plan for eating during that period of time?” Most don’t think about that so the dealers wield a lot of influence. The dealers are the gatekeepers, and without them it’s extremely difficult to move up. To gain access to grants, museums, collectors who have money. Contacts that can further your career, or take your career into other possibilities and opportunities. Most know it and that’s why artists are content to endure sometimes unfavorable situations in order to get repped. Work hard, meet the show criteria, help cover the cost of your opening, and then give up half your profit to your dealer. Then lose a third of what’s left after that to the tax man. Then take out your cost of living. Even if you’re selling paintings for $100k, after all of that you’re looking at a profit margin of $30k +change if you’re lucky. If you’re not living in a major city. You’re telling me that’s not skewed?

It is a very hard cycle. You need a will of steel and a ton of resolve. I’ve had more success than a lot of artists will ever have. I have great, ethical, people representing and showing my work and it’s still not easy.

Image: Keinyo White Ltd. ©®