Help Desk is where I answer your queries about making, exhibiting, finding, marketing, buying, selling — or any other activity related to contemporary art. Submit your questions anonymously here: http://bit.ly/132VchD. All submissions become the property of Daily Serving. Help Desk is co-sponsored by Daily Serving.
I graduated from college about a year ago, and have been pursuing art passionately and persistently ever since. My work is well received and I’ve participated in shows, but I’m used to being generally unnoticed. When it dawned on me that ardor does not equal opportunity, I came to another blindingly obvious realization — I know virtually nothing about building a career as an artist past this point. How do all of these young, contemporary artists that I admire get to where they are now? My whole life is art. I’ve never had more faith in anything, and can’t see myself doing anything else. My point is that I am unacceptably clueless about how to reach an audience in a way that I would like to. I’m aware that being an artist isn’t a walk in the park, but right now I’m stuck in a rut. What do I need to do to keep moving forward? I don’t want to lose my spark because I’m in the dark.
I wish I could give you a fun and non-cynical pep talk along the lines of: Just work hard and the magic will happen!, but you’ve already figured out that you can work your fingers to bloody nubs and still no one at Art Basel will know your name. Your question, though, is a good one: it’s the fundamental—perhaps-axiological query of the emerging artist living in the shadow of late-market capitalism: “I am passionate about art; how do I garner acclaim and money for my work?” And you’ll find any number of peppy answers if you poke around in art-career books, but my advice is that you keep these two things as far from each other as you can, because — and this is the really important part — you can only really control one of them.
The point I’d like to make about control is central to your concern about how young contemporary artists got where they are now. These days, most young hotshots attended highfalutin’ MFA programs in New York or LA, where their work was seen by high-level gallerists and/or curators, some of whom were paid to take a look. Most of these artists had early market successes that were driven by a dealer who was willing to speculate on the value of their work. Many artists have been plucked from the deep, dark well of obscurity by a high-powered curator who put their work into a high-profile show at a major institution. When you weigh it in the balance, it turns out that these artists did not have much control over their careers beyond getting into top-notch schools and thereby having access to VIPs — someone else with money, influence, and power made it happen. I’m not trying to cast doubt on these artists’ relative talent or make pessimistic comparisons to the likelihood of you reaching your own goals, but it’s crucial that you understand that a rapid ascent to the dizzy heights of Artforum Mountain is not in the power of the artist alone.
