The quiet exhibitionist

The necessary process for an artist, any artist, of showing work to someone in order to get an exhibition is a difficult one, especially when the artist is coming out of a self-chosen period of hands-on mothering and wrestling with work at the same time. The world has changed, though the work is timeless. So many of the better galleries - places where a good artist might want to show - imagine themselves as already sorted, count their money with a kind of inelegant relish, while having a well tuned, slightly over-orchestrated, line of defence, presumably in order to rebuff with an ostentatious flourish any incoming artists. I feel for them. It's a painful process watching them drop like flies, especially up close, and one I've seen on both sides of the ocean. Besides, social confidence is not always an artist's strength. And today's habit of crushing something if it is insufficiently robust in presentation is - in my opinion - a mistake. But at least the few people allowed to see the work have responded impressively. One major art world figure shown examples responded brilliantly. As one of the world's foremost collectors, they had their office email two galleries - chosen as ideal venues by the artist - and recommended the galleries view the work immediately. But what did the artist get after making contact with the galleries following the collector's emails? Not so much as an acknowledgement - and that without them even seeing the work. (One suggested the collector never got in touch with galleries about artists, insinuating it a lie.) Still, their loss. Their mistake. Onwards.