What Should You Look for When Showcasing Your Paintings in an Art Gallery?
Author : westend artspace | Published On : 05 May 2026
When you are planning to showcase your paintings in an exhibition space in Australia, you should look for a space that is in alignment with your artistic style. Make sure that the venue of the art gallery is centrally located so that everyone can easily access it. The lighting and placement of the painting should be proper so that people get to enjoy it and also become interested to make the purchase. Here’s what you should look for:
- What kind of exhibition space are you looking for? A commercial gallery focuses more on sales and commission while an artist run initiative will give your more freedom to showcase your paintings but you will have to more logistics.
- You should visit the gallery to get an idea about whether it suits your style of art and whether the atmosphere and the crowd are good or not.
- What about the commission structure? How much do you need to pay for booking the exhibition space? Do they have a flat fee or is it commission based. Lookout for hidden charges like many places will charge you for installing the paintings.
- Make sure to sign a legal document with the gallery where it should be clearly stated that the paintings will remain yours while they are on consignment.
- Find out if the gallery offers insurance coverage in case of damage or theft of the paintings during the exhibition period.
- The exhibition space should enhance your painting. This is possible when the place has proper lighting. Look out if natural light enters the gallery during daytime or not. You also need to find out about blind spots and so on.
- Does the area offer accessibility for people of all kinds? Like do they have wheelchair access, loading docks and reasonable visitor access?
- Ask the art curator about the kind of marketing done by them to promote your paintings? Many galleries are into social media promotion, email newsletters and so on.
- Does the gallery have the option of hosting the “opening night” of the exhibition? How about catering service during the event? You need to make sure that they have sufficient space to execute the same.
- Always make it a point to take high-resolution, professional photos of your paintings at the exhibition. You can use them as part of your portfolio.
- Will the staff at the gallery help you in installing the paintings? Or do you need to do them by yourself?
- Do you have an inventory management in place? If not, you should get one where you need to mention all the details including the dimension, medium and prices of the paintings and get the gallery to sign the document.
- And finally, you need to plan how you would transport the paintings to and fro from the gallery. You need to ensure that the paintings don’t get damaged in the process.
If you have more queries, or would like to discuss the entire thing face-to-face with the art curator, then book an appointment with him. Make sure that you discuss everything to clear all your doubts.
