Added Mar 15, 2010
EXHIBITIONS IN MEXICO. - AN ARTIST’S TALE – Problems of selling paintings in Mexico.
Most of us at some time try to use galleries, but sad to say I have had many rejections. I suspect most artists will commiserate with me on this issue.
I became a solely professional painter in 2009.
GALERIA MOODS - I contacted a gallery on the day before it opened. We showed the owner some of my works that were in the boot of the car and laid them out in her car park. She invited us to the opening and an appointment with her the following Monday. The opening was very lavish and enjoyable with lazers, chocolate coated strawberries etc. Eagerly on Monday I arrived for my appointment. After an awkward five minutes she said she was interested only in abstracts. If that was the case, I wondered why she had arranged to see me knowing full well that I had shown her was portraits, animals and raptors, everything except abstracts.
GALERIA, THE ARCHES, The Mission Queretaro in JURIQUILLA - The first gallery I did use was in a fancy hotel 5 killometres outside of Queretaro. I was promised an exhibition and assumed it would be in the main gallery itself. It turned out to be in the lobby and separate from the gallery. I had to put the paintings way above head height to avoid them being stolen. We organized live music, wine and cakes for the opening. A lot of my friends turned up, but none from the gallery’s client list turned up. I still don’t know why that was. I used a gallery because I assumed it was professional and had a good client list. Sales - none. The gallery has since closed and become a flower shop.
COLEGIO MAPECO, URUAPAN - The next exhibition was in a lovely old art school in Uruapan. I had very good responses from the students. They said it was good to see paintings of Mexican life through the eyes of an Englishman. Unfortunately the students and teachers charged no more than a 1000 peso for any of their works. My prices were far above that. Sales – none and I had one painting stolen.
I found a gallery Juriquilla with a very friendly manager, Manuel. He confidently assured me that no painting ever stayed with him longer than 3 months. After six months – no sales and no explanation. Manuel was still smiling, but I wasn’t. It closed within the half year.
GALERIA TAURENO - I persuaded a restauranter to take down his bullfighting paraphenalia and let me exhibit my paintings in his restaurant and also to work there on Friday nights, drawing portraits of the customers. We raffled three painting and sold two. The owner said he would like 20 paintings of bullfights in the style of Picasso’s. We agreed a price of 1,500 each. I did the first for that price but then explained that I had underpriced it and must re-negociate the price for the others. He then said he hadn’t actually ordered 20 paintings, but only said he would like 20 paintings. I reminded him that we had agreed a price so I assumed that he had been serious. Unfortunately Espanol though a beautiful lyrical and poetic language, is not as precise as English. The words in Espanol can mean any number of things. For business it is neither as practical or precise as English. He finally bought the first one and insisted we supply a digital photo of it and email it to him. We did this, but had to reduce the mega pixels for it to be acceptable for e-mailing. He was being cute by not telling us what he wanted it for. He used it for a new sign and had it blown up to 12 feet high. The image looked most strange, just a series of squares of color because of its low resolution and extreme enlargement. it was difficult to see what it was meant to be. He blamed us and said he had done a better image with his own camera. We reminded him that he hadn´t sent it over the internet so he was comparing a 10 megapixal photo with a 3 megapixal picture. He insisted that we should have asked him what he wanted it for and specified the quality necessary. I reminded him that he had commissioned a painting for a very low price. He hadn't commissioned a 12 foot high poster design. He hadn’t paid for the digital photo. We had supplied it to him, as he asked, over the internet, within 24 hours and as a favor to him. It was the job of the printer to specify all the parameters and he hadn't. Either way we could not be held responsible for the lack of information, poor briefing and the incompetence of the designer/printer. As for trying to draw his clients, it left me with an utter loathing for drunken women who enjoyed making it as difficult as they can for the artist to draw them and then saying they didn’t like it. I finally gave it up as a bad venue. It closed 3 months later.
GALERIA, THE WINERY LOS ARCOS - A friend recommended a wine bar with lots of wealthy customers. I saw it in daylight and had my misgivings, but my friend assured me that the customers were very wealthy. Under night conditions my worst fears were realised. The lighting was such that we could hardly see the paintings. The owner had said his data-base held 2,500 clients and the exhibition would be in 7 days time, but his computer had crashed and he was unable to contact any of the 2,500 customers. I only found this out much later. Only a few of my friends turned up. I felt an utter fool trying to give an opening speech to three people. From this experience I learnt that everything has to be planned to the last detail and with adequate time and never take what Mexicans say on face value. I just assumed the owner had done it before and was experienced. I urged him to change the lighting and make it a really beautiful gallery as well as a winery but he is slow to change. He arranged for us to paint eight barrels which he would auction or donate them to us. They didn't sell. The fact is that it is a wine bar not a gallery and his customers are not into art.
STUDIO GALERIA, MILLENO 3 - I opened a studio in a very high class neighborhood and offered classes. The problem is that the people had money but seemed to have so many holidays they never turned up for their classes. An ex gallery manager whom I had dealt with before opened a gallery below me. I tried to pick his brain to find out what would sell. He said go bigger and do abstracts. I went bigger and did abstracts. He kept telling me they were sold and he had buyers in Mexico city but no money materialised. He actually wanted me to do copies of existing paintings. As he was starting up we loaned him easels. He had no electrics so I let him wire up to my junction box with the agreement that he would pay the bill. It is quite illegal, but a very common practice in Mexico. He didn’t pay the bill. We kept reminding him and he kept saying he had paid it but the company double checked and proved to us that he hadn't. He maintained that he had but never had the receipt at hand to prove it. I never understand why men here in Mexico tell such blatant lies that are bound to be exposed as lies. It seems lies and honesty have different meanings here. Luckily we had one of his frames that was worth as much as the bill, so we kept it and didn't lose out. He commissioned me, to do two portraits. He paid for the first one and then insisted on paying less than promised but gave no reason why. Result - one sale only. I thought that with his business knowledge and my artistic skill we could build a real business and client base. We left and he closed shortly after.
- I found a beautifully designed and user friendly website that took only 7% commission. It started off with high aspirations of becoming the top art-site worldwide for art lovers. The owner objected to my putting on it my cartoon work. He felt cartoons cheapened the site. This seemed most strange because the site gradually attracted more earings and hand knitted leg warmers etc and less paintings. I did sell one painting, but it was to someone on the opposite side of the planet and the postage took most of my profit. It has now expanded and is a very successful craft site for art lovers. I still feel this is a contradiction of terminology. Art is art and craft is craft. Both are equally valid but they are not the same.
PLAZA CANDELES - Finally I exhibited in a local shopping plaza. This gave me lots of contacts, commissions for pencil portraits, and an opportunity to teach caricaturing to children. I enjoyed it immensely. I received one commission of 7,000 pesos for a tiger. Shortly after this I was targeted by a gang of art thieves from Venezuela. The director felt that it was no longer safe for me to be there. Such is the climate of fear in Mexico. For my own safety and with much sadness I had to leave.
CHUZ Cafe Candeles. I pursuaded my friend Omar to let me exhibit in his cafe. I did eight paintings of Acapulco, Paris, London and Venice. There have been no sales but there are no costs and the coffee and cakes are the best in Queretaro. Unfortunately Candeles Plaza is still has only 35 of its 150 locals occupied. The owners live in Mexico and don't seem to understand the laws of economics. The rents are too high especially now the plaza is only 23% occupied.
In June 2010 I will be the guest exhibitor in Azimal Gallery in San Miguel.
CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS LEARNT - We artists tend to be desperate to find exhibition space. When we do, we have to consider the cost of doing sufficient paintings, framing, invitations, food, wine, music and guest list with no guarantee of selling anything. The critical factors are producing paintings that people would like to have on their walls and creating a list of such people. This is why we turn to galleries for help. We assume they have the experience, expertise and a nice big list of real, potential and wealthy buyers. We need to realize that Art galleries are one of the few businesses that do not invest money in stock. We supply it to them on a sale or return basis. So we are in effect acting like a bank and giving them unsecured credit. We have invested time, money and love in our paintings. They have invested nothing except their overheads. We assume they know how to make it work, what will sell and advise us accordingly. Unfortunately we have no guarantee of this and no way of knowing how good they are. I am still looking for a gallery owner who knows his business and is willing to share his knowledge with me so that we can have a mutually profitable co-operation.
As artists our first problem is learning our craft. The second is learning what to paint. The third is learning how to market ourselves. The fourth is making contact with the right people. The fifth is finding enough of them to make an exhibition worthwhile. Personally I believe exhibitions are not worth all the effort or profitable in Mexico. There is no easy way or magic formulae and the gallery owners are not much wiser than we are. It seems that they have little idea or knowledge of what will sell and merely take what is offered and see if it will sell. They say very little because they don't want to reveal their ignorance.
WHAT TO PAINT? - So, what have I learnt from all this? Answer - I have still a great deal yet to learn about the art market. I still believe that art is like no other business. Whilst the world is massproducing and reducing unit costs, we artists are trying to produce paintings that communicate to the souls of our patrons. Every thing we do is unique. The customer can cherry pick the best and we are left with the dross. It is driven by subject. If people like dogs they are not going to buy cats. The trick is to find our market and do the best we can.
VIVIANO - It is possible that our best option as artists is to dispense with galleries all together. I think the world is changing and we artists must change with it. We must find a successful and internet site that has a good proven record, it has already attracted a lot of high quality artists with over one and half million artworks and it must have sold a good number of those paintings. Then we just have to paint a given subject well and trust that it will be seen by a real art lover who is willing to pay a fair price for. I believe and trust that I have found just such a site in Artmajeur.