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Galleries vs. Instagram | Alexandra Novik Khamis

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A lot has changed for artists since the inception of the Facebook, Instagram and other social Medias. Most notably, artists now have far more options than ever for presenting themselves and their art to the world. Though the traditional gallery system is still in place, galleries no longer control the show the way they once did and for the first time in forever, having gallery representation is not necessarily the best and only way to go for all artists. In spite of all this, way too many artists continue their relentless single-minded quests for gallery representation without even realizing they can now do for themselves pretty much everything that galleries can do for them... and more.
One of the reasons to make exhibition in gallery is that artist can communicate and be more social with guests. For the first time in history and in formats that barely even existed only a few years ago, artists can now attract thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of followers almost entirely on their own.
Back in the old days, art world success used to be all about which handful of galleries had the most money to spend on the largest ads and best positions in major art publications, which handful of galleries the handful of newspaper and magazine art critics visited and chose to anoint as legitimate contenders, and which handful of artists that handful of galleries decided their clienteles should pay attention to. Even though this all still happens, it's not such a big deal anymore.
The best news is that the best art is still what attracts the most attention, regardless of where it's being made or shown or who's doing the showing.
Artists can now do practically everything online that galleries once had to do for them, and often in much larger ways.
The two primary functions of galleries - providing artists with exposure for their art and providing collectors and buyers with access to that art - are no longer necessary or even relevant to doing business as an artist.
People in the know search and shop online all the time including collectors, curators, investors, speculators, gallery owners and anyone else who has an interest in art... including museum personnel. Everyone's on the hunt for the next great art stars and they know they can cover far more territory far faster on their computers or cell phones than they can by physically shopping the galleries or visiting artists at their studios.
For artists, the chances of being discovered online are better than ever.
In many instances, the traditional relationship between galleries and artists has completely flipped. In the old days, artists had to present themselves and their art to galleries and hope and pray for a portfolio review.
The gallery was the one in control; artists needed galleries to call attention to their art. Now artists with impressive online profiles and large numbers of followers have substantially more control over what galleries they show with or whether they even show with galleries at all.
While a typical gallery might have several thousand online followers or maybe somewhat more, it's no longer that unusual for an artist to have tens or even hundreds of thousands of fans. There's nothing particularly exciting about following most galleries online anyway. Pretty much all they do is post images of art by artists they represent, while artist pages are often rich in content, visuals and narratives, and rightfully attract tons more viewers.
Online followers have become the new art world currency, those who buy are the gold standard, and social networking art stars are beginning to leverage that in terms of who or even if they decide to show with one gallery or another.
For those of you who may not get along well with people, are uncomfortable in social situations, or have any other aversions to real-life interactions, the Internet has the capacity to be your savior. You can do pretty much everything from the comfort and protection of your own home or studio without ever having to engage a single human being face-to-face, at least at the start. What this all means is that there's no longer any excuse for any artist anywhere not to try and realize their full potential. Why stop yourself before you even start when you have such powerful tools at your fingertips? And you should always try to exhibit your art in galleries as well. But in our time it’s not that important anymore.



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