6 Things I learned From Putting On My Own Solo Exhibition

About three and a half years ago, on May 3rd, 2018 I had the opening to my very first solo exhibition. The exhibit consisted of landscape paintings I created with inspiration from the West Coast of Canada, Hawaii, and the East Coast of Australia - all across the Pacific Rim. 

The months leading up to the opening night were a huge learning experience, and I definitely had to adjust course multiple times in the process. 

Having recently had a second solo exhibition where I worked with a curator and a whole team to make it happen, it really highlighted the differences of the two experiences in my mind. 

Over the last 4 years I’ve also been a part of organizing multiple solo and group exhibitions while running The Space an Art Gallery in Yaletown. I’ve seen what really works and learned some great tricks along the way. This is why I decided to write about the things that I learned from that first exhibit and my years of running a gallery, and share those discoveries with you. 

1. Build it and they will not come… unless you invite them.

This may be a bit of an obvious statement, but it’s probably the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to organizing an art exhibit.

The bulk of the work in putting on your own art show is not in the actual creation of the art (that part is all fun), but in the promotion, marketing, and communication around the show. 

I spent a couple of busy days on sending out personalized invites to the people on my mailing list with whom I have built a good rapport. This included anyone who has ever bought an artwork from me or has shown interest in my art, as well as close friends and family. This was in addition to a mass email to all the other contacts I have and lots of posts about the show on all my social media channels.

This wasn’t exactly a new piece of learning for me, but I really got to see the positive results for myself this time. Every personal email opened up another conversation, regardless of whether that person made it to the show or not. Friends brought more friends, and strangers showed up who just happened to hear about it. All of the social media promotion gained new followers and re-engaged existing ones. 

I am really glad I put in the time and effort to add that personal touch to the invites. The opening reception saw more than 200 people through the gallery. I was overwhelmed with the response, and I definitely saw this reflected in my sales during and after the show. 

2. There will always be a last minute something, so plan on it.

A friend said this to me once, “Work is like a gas, it expands according to the amount of space it has to fill.”  I had no idea how true it was until I had this solo show. 

It’s not all about procrastination either. Even when everything is done and buttoned up, we can find more stuff to do. This explains why I decided the night before to paint just one more small piece to add to the exhibit. Maybe this is a defence mechanism that keeps the mind occupied and saves us from all the anticipation, but it’s true that there will always be something to be done at the last minute. 

This is why I planned to have nothing to do a couple of days before the opening night, and is an incredibly valuable piece of advice for anyone putting on a show. I also had an assistant who could take care of little tasks like printing stuff out or doing a supply run, because I knew I might be busy with other bigger tasks, or showing VIPs around the exhibit before it opens to the public. 

3. Location location location.

The basic rule is, you should pick the best possible location you can afford, and out of all the items you can spend money on for the show, this is the one to splurge on. 

A central location that is easy to get to can make a world of difference for the attendance and networking opportunities. There are so many things that have to be considered with a location that are hard to think of until they become an issue. If people have to drive to the venue, is there plentiful parking? Is there an easy public transport option or a cab rank close by? If it’s a small venue and people have to line up outside, is there cover for rain? 

There are also many other aspects to consider like lighting, hanging systems, bar setup and bathrooms. It’s great to have a location that is already equipped with some of this, otherwise it will be an additional cost and hassle to get these organized. 

4. Tell one story, and make it a good one.

Being consistent with the theme allows the visitors to really immerse themselves in the art and get a deeper understanding of what you are trying to communicate. 

Having spent the previous couple of years gathering inspiration in places like Tofino, Washington coast, Hawaii and Australia, I was ready to transform my experiences into artworks. I love painting coastlines... but also mountains, rivers, pastures, and clouds, so I knew I had to settle on one subject. I titled the show Pacific Rim, and all the artworks I created for it were seascapes. 

As for the “make it a good one” part of this point, it’s not so much about picking a “good” theme, but rather picking one you could really be passionate about and not find boring after creating two or three paintings. It really doesn’t matter what theme you choose, as long as it’s something you can see yourself sticking with for a while and feel good talking about to your audience. 

What I learned is that you don’t just do one show on a theme and move on. This is because afterwards there will be commission requests, and some of the work will remain unsold.  Therefore the theme flows into the following months and possibly years of your career. Of course you could just burn the bridge if you really aren’t interested in continuing with a subject, but it’s much more practical to pick something that can be a long term source of inspiration (and income).

5. Vary your price points

After banging on about consistency for a bit, I thought I’d swing over to the opposite end and talk about what can and should be varied. This is more of a practical point about sales, but it’s actually something that I could have done better in the exhibit now that I look back on it. 

I had one major large scale piece that was my main attraction, as well as a handful of small paintings. But for the most part, all the works were in the medium to large range. What I noticed was that the standout pieces sold first, and so did all of the little ones, with a few people having been disappointed that they were all gone. 

As an artist at the early stages of a career, which is exactly where I was at the time, your chances of selling more pieces at a smaller price point are much higher than one large painting at a high price. My mistake was not having enough inventory at the low end and also not having any prints available for those collectors who were not looking to spend large amounts. 

6. You can’t actually do it all yourself.

It’s unrealistic to expect one person to be able to do everything from painting to updating websites to making labels, and to do it well to boot. Even though I was organizing my own show, I still needed a lot of help and outsourced a few tasks around the exhibit. 

For example, I’m really glad that I worked with a professional writer to create descriptions for all the art and edit my artist statement. It took a huge amount of work off my plate, and I could be sure that the quality of the writing matched the art, as it’s not my strong suit. 

Some of the other tasks I outsourced were website updates, printing and making labels, and sourcing wine for the opening night. I could have actually delegated more of the work and focused on things I couldn’t outsource, but that was part of the learning process. From this experience I learned to be ok with letting go of some of the control and allowing the various experts to do their part of the work that needs to be done to pull off a successful art show. 

Thank you for taking the time to read to the end, and I hope this was useful information which will help you in putting on your own solo exhibit.