Artist Submissions and Applications to Red Rag British Art Gallery
Red Rag welcomes applications from professional British Artists. To be considered by Red Rag Gallery artists should have either been: born in Britain; be currently living in Britain or have trained at a British art school. Artists who believe their art work fits in with The Red Rag Gallery house style and wish their paintings, sculptures or British Art work and Limited Edition Prints to be considered should carefully read the guidelines below before applying. These guidelines are intended to be helpful pointers to be used by artists interested in showing art works at Red Rag Art Gallery or with other commercial art galleries. Please note we will not consider artists who show in online-only galleries or in galleries in the locality of our locations.
Commercial galleries are all run by individual companies or people. Each art gallery will have their own rules for submission, so it is not possible to produce a definitive brief. However, there are some basic steps that you can follow to make sure you've covered their requirements.
Introduction
Applying to show and sell your art work to an art gallery is much like applying for a job. Art galleries receive dozens of applications from artists every week. It therefore important to make it easy for gallery staff to appraise your application and for you to make your application stand out.
Remember for many gallery people time is the most precious commodity so make your application simple and straight forward to appraise. There are several people who are able to consider art applications at Red Rag, but many commercial art galleries are short on staff and curators/owners also take on the role of the selling the art work. Galleries do not have the time to trawl through artist websites to seek out images that they are submitting. At Red Rag we do attempt to review all submissions, but if you merely send a link to your website when submitting to a gallery, do not be surprised if some galleries simply ignore your submission.
Guidelines
Targetting the right art gallery
Before approaching any art gallery about showing new art work it is essential to have determined which galleries are most appropriate for particular types of work. Only after doing this should artists consider approaching galleries about their work.
Presenting art works professionally
1. Make sure you have clear digital images of your art work. Images should be crisp and not blurred. It is usually best to take photographs of paintings and sculptures without a flash. Art work such as paintings should be carefully placed and photographed directly from the front or overhead to prevent creating a distorted image. For added clarity some artists use a camera tripod to photograph their work.
2. It takes time to produce a good painting, so make sure it is presented well. Edit your photographs to ensure they are presented well and do not feature an art easel or busy back ground wall. Send medium (not large ' they take too long to receive and load) size digital images of art works.
3. Before sending images of art works find out who to submit your work to. The easiest way to do this is to have a look on the galleries website. Most galleries will have a section where they explain the submission process or who to contact at the gallery. If they don't have a comprehensive website, then call them and find out who and how to submit you work to for consideration ' but do not make contact when the gallery is likely to be busy ie Saturday or between 10- 12am and 2-4pm.
4. When submitting work to art galleries limit the number of images you send to around six images. Many artists make the mistake of sending too many images of various styles. The majority of gallery people prefer an artist to focus on particular styles or themes.
5. Along with the images send a CV briefly highlighting any art awards you have received and art venues where your art has been exhibited. Highlight any other art exhibitions or shows where your art works are being shown over the next few months.
Approaching Red Rag Gallery
British artists interested in approaching and showing their art works at Red Rag art exhibitions and events should use the following link to email the gallery. Artists should note that Red Rag look for British artists who are committed to promoting their art works solely through art galleries. Artists with their own websites which are designed to sell art work directly or that provide direct contact details will not be considered.
Red Rag Gallery ' British art and artists
