Entering Art competitions and soliciting galleries when you're old: All the critics love you in

I sent a lot of emails to galleries last night, and sent more this morning, I decided to contact galleries in Amsterdam since I'm going there later this year, and Florence since I'm going there fairly soon as well, and New York and London cause why the feck not. Not so much looking for exhibitions but to see if they carry work by 'new' artists who are new but old, a curious predicament I find myself in! Like so many things out there, there is a game to play, and one I am not yet well versed in but maybe I am making some inroads? I'm not sure yet will see what happens throughout the week.

All the critics love you in New York

First bit I found a little disillusioning was the gallery in New York who would love to represent me, but would like me to pay $50 to look at my work again and then pay something stupid like $3000 for a years presentation and 3 metres of exhibition space as and when they wish to exhibit my work.

London Crawling

Then there was the London Gallery who want my work for their exhibition but I would have to pay £500 to exhibit which would give my work exposure to 40,000 people apparently and provide me with a sales agent and an invitation to the event where there is a complimentary bar, that might have evened things out and justified the cost about three months ago, but I don't think I could drink that much ginger beer or mineral water.

Amsterdamned

Next up was a response from Amsterdam where I was informed they couldnt access my website via there iPAD I responded with my facebook page and link to Saatchi work, I later got a response saying 'your work doesn't fit' and that was that. I could have told that from the first response, I kind of wondered why they responded at all?

That hole aint gonna dig itsself

So I dug a little deeper and found competitions to enter your work in which provide both financial reward and exhibiting opportunities, they also give you greater public exposure through their websites if your work is shortlisted, which is something. There seemed to be less of a catch here as they werent all asking for money. One place did charge me fifteen quid, but I took that risk as it seemed fairly legit and the prize is £1500 and gallery representation, plus your work is exhbited on their site throughout the show even if you don't make the shortlist, maybe that isn't quite worth the fifteen quid, but I think my work is good enough to get past that stage.

WAR whooa! what is it good for?

I also found a gallery looking for anti war work and sent them some images to look at as well. Could my NEON sign still have it's finest hour?

Hitting the Pipe

What has been pleasant is the amount of hits it has generated on the website, and the pleasant comments and feedback I have received from those who have been on the site so far, (please leave them on the site people!) I should hopefully have some news about a potential exhibition in Glasgow soon and I may have something in the pipeline in Holland as I did get some positive response from there.

Aftershave

So the competitions and opens that I have sent work to today are: The Warsteiner Blooom award held in Cologne, free entry, and money and representation as prize, but I felt old just looking at their site. The Lacey Contemporary Gallery summer Art Prize, London paid them £15. Modern Panic London Exhbition, free entry for consideration. Some group called the Art retail Network who are offering a £1000 to the winner although they don't seem to know when their deadline is. I sent some Anti war work to Gallery ELL for a digital exhbition so will see what happens there.

In the Midnight hour

I have found a good site with open competitions and calls for work across Europe so I am going to go through that for a bit and maybe send some more applications out and see what happens, In the last week I have applied for a few things closer to home as well, I hope to update with that in the next few days.

Old

I started off this article talking about being older, I didnt have the work ethic or the money to do this when I was younger. But now I have to find a way to exhibit so I'll keep chipping away and see what happens, regardless I think I need to make some more drawings as I've written a shit load of emails over the last few days!

Thanks for reading, and again please comment on the site, its nice to hear yer thoughts!