Exhibitions: Crazy Ideas and Hard Work

Yes, it might seem like a crazy idea to host your own solo exhibition, crazier still to do it amid the ongoing COVID-19 conundrums, and in the heart of a city that’s still coaxing people back to its streets.

Yet here I am, doing the wrap-up from a buzzing opening night, delivering artworks that sold during the exhibition, reviewing what worked (and what didn’t!) to help in planning the next one.

Without a gallery to do the hard yards of marketing, promoting, and managing your exhibition, artists are forced to spend time looking for and liaising with venues, engineering partnerships and sponsorships, marketing and designing promotional materials, monitoring and managing registrations and client communications, trying to manage the endless list of behind-the-scenes tasks, and juggling suppliers. All while, of course, they also need to be making art.

When people turn up (and thank goodness they did!) and wander around the gallery space, they don’t see the days it took to transport artworks and infrastructure, install the gallery walls and the lighting, and hang the collection to transform a day-to-day business space into an art gallery.

As people nibble on the delicious food, sip mocktails, and listen to live music, they don’t see the hours juggling suppliers, musicians, caterers and wait staff, writing scripts, or testing the AV.

And of course, that’s how it should be. Yes, it’s hard work. But when people showed up to view my art, I put those thoughts aside and I showed up too.

I chatted, I answered questions, I listened. I spoke with children and young people with their own artistic aspirations. I spoke with people who came to look and discover, those who came to enjoy quietly, and those who came to explore, and possibly buy. Many had their own views when they engaged with my work, and that’s great. I listened while they explained what they saw and felt. I listened to feedback, and I appreciated the time, energy, and personal contributions people made to the process of my art.

We might do some things differently next time. We might change things up. We might make new mistakes. But we will do all this again, because art is ultimately about expression, and enables us to share a universal language and be part of an ongoing, deeply human conversation.

And I love every minute of it.