The highs and lows of exhibiting art
My exhibition at The Other Art Fair in Dallas was exciting, but definitely nerve-wracking! Not only was it the first art show I had attended in 2 years due to the Covid pandemic, but there were so many chances for things to go wrong.
I was travelling 4500 miles away with artworks that measured up to 45 inches. In fact, due to the size of the artworks, I had to remove the canvas from the frames and reassemble them at the hotel in Texas. It was a huge process getting the art safely packaged and ready to fly. There were many opportunities for the artworks to go missing or get damaged.
Another stressful factor is the business side of exhibiting. For me to continue being able to exhibit at art shows, I have to make a profit. When you combine the cost of attending the art show, transporting the artwork, travelling to the destination and hotel fees, I already have to sell a certain amount of artwork to recover the costs of going to the art show. This means I have to make a difficult decision — Which artwork do I bring? Which series will resonate with the audience the most?
I chose the bulls because Dallas is famous for its ranches and love of animals. As I walked around the city, I saw lots of amazing life size bronze bull statues. And then I noticed — all these bulls were a different breed to the bulls in my painting! Texans tend to like longhorn bulls, whereas my current art is inspired by Spanish bulls. I was anxious that this small oversight was going to result in no sales but thankfully, people still seemed to connect with my work.
I had a wonderful time at TOAF Dallas. The exhibition ran for 4 days, and I had sold enough art by day 3 to recover the costs of attending the show. Knowing that I wouldn’t be going home and making a loss was a huge relief! Whilst selling my art is one of the goals of exhibiting, it’s not just about the money. I love meeting art enthusiasts and talking about our shared passion. One man said that “looking at the Proud Bull artwork is like looking in a mirror”, which was so wonderful to hear. Saatchi will be doing another exhibit in Dallas in October, and I’m very interested in attending.
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