Having an Exhibition

 

This past weekend I was in Sacramento for the opening receptions of my exhibition at Viewpoint Photographic Art Center. They had a Friday reception for their members - which was very lively. The group has been in existence for over twenty years and they have a very active membership. They produce over 24 shows a year, host workshops, artist talks, critique groups and a student night...pretty impressive. 

On 2nd Saturdays, the city has an enormous Art Walk from 5-9pm...and we did the entire gig. It was quite something to have continual waves of people coming through the gallery.  I got to talk with people who'd never been to a gallery ("my wife made me come") to seasoned artists who make sure they know what's going on in the local art scene. My favorites were the ones who took the time to really look at the work and I had some great conversations about how I work, why I use repeating themes, what my goals are etc. 

I'm happy to say, we had both print and catalog sales. I had discussed the gallery's previous history of sales to get an idea of what the market was like and I created a catalog of the work for viewers without deeper pockets. Here's a link to the publication - and right below it are one from my American Triptych series and my Multiple Viewpoints series.  On Sunday I gave an artist's talk about Creativity - which got a nice group of about 25 people. Overall, we loved being in Sacramento, it's a great hybrid of a small town and large city. It's very easy to get around, has great restaurants and it's super easy to get out of town. They have four community colleges in their district, plus a university...and Davis is just a stone's throw away.

When I was in grad school, one of my instructors talked about how many "art worlds" there are out there and this weekend really got me thinking. Living in a larger metropolitan area, buyers can become jaded - but when you get a bit further out, the quality of the work is still amazing, but there seems to be a more direct line to people who want to buy art. Consider this when you're putting together your "hit-list" of places you'd like to approach for a show...