Most artists approach a gallery the same way: an email to the general address with a portfolio attached and a request to be considered. Many galleries answer that email on their own websites, before it is sent. They say they do not take unsolicited material. The email goes anyway, and nobody reads it.
This guide is about the doors that are open. It covers what galleries say about submissions on their own pages, what to prepare, how to write to a curator, and what to settle in writing before a work leaves your studio. Every page in the list below was opened and checked on 5 October 2026.
It is a companion to the guide on pitching your work to the press. The press writes about exhibitions. This guide is about getting one.
Three kinds of door
The commercial gallery. It represents a small number of artists and sells their work. It takes on a new artist rarely, and almost always someone it already knows: through a group show, a recommendation from one of its artists, a studio visit, a degree show. Several say outright that they do not accept unsolicited material. Believe them. The way in is to be seen where their people look, and that takes longer than an email.
The public gallery and the artist-run space. They build a programme years ahead and choose the artists themselves. Many do not take exhibition proposals at all, and say so. What they do run is open calls: for an exhibition, a commission, a fellowship, a residency. An open call is a door with a date on it, and the terms are published.
The curator. A curator is working on something: a group show, a theme, a season. They are looking for works that belong in it, and they are not looking for artists in general. You write to a curator about one body of work and one reason it connects to what they do.
Sending the same message to all three is the commonest mistake in this field. A request for representation means nothing to a public gallery. An exhibition proposal means nothing to a commercial one.
Read the page before you write
A gallery's contact page usually tells you which door you are standing at. Look for three phrases.
- "We do not accept unsolicited submissions." There is no route by email. Do not send a portfolio "just in case".
- "Open call", "open submission", "opportunities". There is a route, with rules and a deadline. Read all of it: who is eligible, what is asked for, whether there is an entry fee, and what selected artists receive.
- Nothing at all. Silence on a page does not mean yes. Find out who programmes the space and what they have shown in the last two years before deciding whether to write.
What to prepare
One document does most of the work, and most artists overbuild it.
- A portfolio in one PDF. Ten to fifteen works, one to a page, each with title, year, medium and dimensions. Recent work first. Leave out anything you would not want to be asked about. Your name and contact details go on the last page, because that is the page left open when someone finishes.
- One body of work, not everything. A curator needs to see what you are doing now. Six paintings from one series tell them more than twenty works from ten years.
- Images that show the object. Square on, evenly lit, colour checked against the work. One installation view if the work has been shown, with the photographer's name.
- A hundred words about the work. Plain sentences. What it is made of, what it looks at, how it is made. If you would not say it aloud to a friend, rewrite it.
- A CV in reverse order. Exhibitions with the most recent first, solo and group shows separated, then collections, awards, residencies and education. One page.
- A file that opens. Under ten megabytes, attached or behind one link that needs no login. Never a zip archive, and never a folder that asks for permission.
- A list of available works with prices, kept separately. You do not send it first. You have it ready on the day someone asks.
Writing to a curator
A first message to a curator is short, and it is about their work before it is about yours.
Say what you saw: an exhibition they made, an essay, a programme. Say in one sentence what you make. Say why the two meet. Attach the PDF or give one link. Then ask for something small: that they look, or that they come to a show that is open now, with its dates and address.
Do not ask for an exhibition. Nobody gives one to a stranger by email, and the request makes the rest of the message harder to answer. A studio visit a year later is a good result.
Prices and paper
Two things damage a working relationship with a gallery faster than anything about the art.
One work, one price. A work costs the same in your studio, on your website and in a gallery. The gallery's commission comes out of that price and is not added to it. A collector who finds the same piece cheaper from the artist will not buy from the gallery again, and the gallery will not show the artist again.
Everything in writing. Before a work leaves the studio, both sides should have a list: which works, at what prices, for how long, what share the gallery keeps, who pays for transport and insurance, and when you are paid after a sale. A gallery that works properly will offer this itself. If it does not, ask for it in an email and keep the reply.
When to write
- Open calls run on published dates. Many are annual. Put the ones that fit you in a calendar and prepare a month ahead, because the application usually asks for more than a portfolio.
- Avoid the weeks when nobody is reading. The days before an opening, the week of an art fair the gallery is showing at, and August.
- Invite people to something real. A message that says "the show is open until the 20th, ten minutes from your gallery" gets more answers than a message that says "please look at my website".
- Follow up once. After three or four weeks, in the same thread, with something new: a show, a prize, a finished series. Then leave it.
Three mistakes particular to this
Writing to galleries that say they do not take submissions. The sentence is on the page. Ignoring it tells the gallery that you did not read about them before asking them to read about you.
Carrying a portfolio to an opening or a fair stand. The people there are working: an opening is for the artist on the walls, and a fair stand is for selling. Introduce yourself in a sentence if the moment is right, and write afterwards.
Paying without asking what the fee covers. Entry fees, participation fees and stands at fairs are a normal part of exhibiting, and so is paying an organiser who finds the right show for your work and prepares your part in it. What matters is that you know what you are getting: who organises, who selects, where the work hangs and what is published afterwards. Record the exhibition on your CV as what it was, with those facts beside it.
A message you can adapt
The example below is invented. Nothing in it refers to a real artist, curator or exhibition.
Subject: Paintings of a flooded quarry, on show in [town] until 20 June
Dear [name],
I saw [exhibition title] at [venue] in March and have thought since about the room of drawings made on site. I am a painter in [town]. For three years I have painted one flooded quarry from the same ledge, at the same hour, and the series now runs to thirty-one panels.
Twelve of them are at [venue, address] until 20 June. If you are in [town] before then, I would be glad to meet you there. A PDF with the whole series is attached, and the work is also here: [one link].
With thanks, [Name, telephone]
It runs to about a hundred words. It begins with the curator's work, gives one fact about the artist's, names a place and a closing date, and asks for a visit rather than a show.
For how a first email is read, see How a pitch is read.
What galleries say on their own pages
The list quotes what each organisation says about approaches from artists. Terms and dates change; open the page before you write.
a-n The Artists Information Company
What it is. A membership body that lists jobs and opportunities for artists.
What its page says. Lists open calls with their closing dates. Organisations can post an opportunity, and the site publishes guidelines for them.
a-n The Artists Information Company: jobs and opportunities
ArtRabbit
What it is. A listings platform for exhibitions and events.
What its page says. Says it is an open submission platform and that anyone can add events. Has a section for open calls.
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
What it is. A public gallery in Gateshead.
What its page says. Runs the Baltic Open Submission. Says applications for the 2026 edition are closed.
Castlefield Gallery
What it is. A public gallery in Manchester with a membership scheme for artists.
What its page says. Says members of its Associates scheme are invited each year to apply to a Members' Exhibition open call. The scheme has a membership fee, stated on the page.
Castlefield Gallery Associates
CuratorSpace
What it is. A platform where curators and organisations post opportunities.
What its page says. Lists open calls with deadlines, which can be browsed without an account.
CuratorSpace: browse opportunities
Eastside Projects
What it is. An artist-run space in Birmingham.
What its page says. Says exhibitions are developed by its own staff and artists, and that it does not accept exhibition proposals or hire out the gallery. Says it runs a variety of open calls through the year.
New Contemporaries
What it is. An organisation supporting emerging artists through an annual open call.
What its page says. Says its 2026 open call ran from 23 February to 30 March and is closed. Says selected artists receive an artist fee and join a development programme ending in a group exhibition.
Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition
What it is. An annual open submission exhibition in London.
What its page says. Describes it as an open submission exhibition, which means that anyone can enter their work to be considered. Entry terms are on its site.
Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition: summer Exhibition
Victoria Miro
What it is. A commercial gallery in London and Venice.
What its page says. Says it does not accept unsolicited materials.
Whitechapel Gallery
What it is. A public gallery in London.
What its page says. Says its exhibition programmes are planned at least three years in advance and that it does not accept any unsolicited proposals.
Read the list for its pattern as much as for its entries. The galleries that close the door say so in one sentence. The organisations that open it do so on a date, with rules, and several of them pay the artists they select. And the listings sites exist so that you do not have to check fifty gallery pages every month.
Questions artists ask
Do I need a gallery to have a career? No. Open exhibitions, artist-run spaces, commissions, residencies and direct sales are all routes that do not depend on representation, and many artists combine them for years. A gallery is one way of selling and being seen. It is worth having when the gallery is right for the work, and not before.
Should I ever pay to exhibit? Often it makes sense. An entry fee for an open exhibition, a participation fee for a group show, a stand at a fair: these are costs of being seen, and for an artist moving to a new country they are sometimes the fastest way in. Before you pay, find out who organises and selects, what the venue is, and what record you will have afterwards. Then list the exhibition accurately.
How many works should be in a portfolio? Ten to fifteen, from one or two recent bodies of work. Enough to show that the work is consistent, and few enough to be looked at properly in three minutes.
Can I approach several galleries at the same time? You can apply to as many open calls as you qualify for. With commercial galleries, be careful: if two of them show interest, each will want to know about the other, and you should tell them. Never consign the same work to two places.
Does your gallery or organisation run an open call that belongs in this list? Tell the Journal and the editors will open the page and add it.
