Every year at about this time I face the same problem, and it never becomes easier. Which exhibitions will I try for this year …. and why. There are several different criteria I might adopt. How easy will it be to get my work accepted? How much will it cost to take part? Will I good to do completely new work, or can I send in something already on the shelf? I there some kind of prestige in making part that might make the cost and/or effort worthwhile? Does it promise to be a new kind of experience? etc. etc.
It doesn’t always work out as planned. At this time last year I drew up a list of eight events, ranging from local venues to national ones. One venue didn’t respond to my request. (I’ve realised since that it really wasn’t a suitable place for my type of work anyway.) I decided that I was too heavily committed with other activities to pursue two of my choices. I did apply to one regionally important venue and was turned down. (I was told that they had decided to prioritise new talent, and wish they had said that in their original publicity.) I mistook the application deadline for one, and so couldn’t submit anyway.
Now the good news: three of the places on my list did put on solo exhibitions of my work, ranging from local to national interest, and I managed to get an additional solo show on a purely opportunistic basis. Oh, of course! I nearly forgot my good friends at the Square and Compass, who have show my work in their restaurant for several years now, and where I have been as successful at selling as anywhere else. I don’t think that is a bad record.
Looking into the coming year I think that I have possibly neglected to follow up opportunities for repeat shows of material in stock, pursuing too often the excitement of putting out new stuff. I have at least two series of pictures that have not ended their useful life yet. I need to pull myself together in the next two weeks and start writing those letters. It’s not a task I enjoy, but my work is doing nobody any good sitting on racks in my studio. Wish me luck!