Working As An Art Gallery Dealer

Do you need to work for a gallery to be an art dealer?

There's two kinds of art dealers - there are the primary art dealers who operate like galleries and there are secondary art dealers who primarily deal with the secondary market. They buy and sell art for clients but don't work with living artists, so you don't need to work for a gallery to be an art dealer.

Do you have a set number of artists that you represent?

We work with quite a few artists. It's not a set number by any long shot of an arm. But, ideally most galleries like to work with about twenty artists. We work with far more just because the gallery has a very long forty year history.

Do you personally represent particular artists for the gallery?

I work with around seven artists: Mishka Portalacrague, Tatsuo Miyajima, Lia Fond, Tony Aspler. I mean more established artists, and then younger people work with with the younger artists.

Who do you sell artworks to?

We sell mostly to individual private collectors, or to museums, or to foundations.

Do artists have regular customers or collectors?

We have collectors who build up collections, and so they buy more than one work of art by one artist. More often than not, they have collections by different artists, yes.

Do you earn commission on the artworks you sell?

Some galleries work on a commission basis system and some galleries just work on year end bonus, so it varies.

How much can a successful art dealer earn?

It really varies depending on what level of art they sell. Certain galleries that are dealing with super blue chip artists on a very high level can easily make over a couple hundred thousand pounds. But if you're working with younger artists, you'd be making a lot less than that. It just depends on the level of artist that you're working with, if they are more established or if they're younger.

Have you discovered someone who is now a big star?

I wouldn't take personal credit for that myself, but the Lisson Gallery is renowned for that. Nicholas had a knack, and still does have a knack, for spotting talent, so to speak. And the spotting talent happened to be because he always believed in artists who were historically significant. So, there's no sort of “formula” as such, you just go by your gut instinct.

Do you install complicated works for buyers?

Often we do, yeah. That's part of the service that we do provide, installation. Yeah, installing complicated works for buyers is part of the service that we provide.

Does some art lend itself to private collection more than museums?

There are some works that lend itself to museums because of the nature of installation and the complexity of the actual work, as opposed to other smaller scale works that lend themselves to a more domestic setting. So it just depends. We sublet to museums - larger scale, installation complex works. And to private individuals, works that can hang on the wall and are a little easier to install.

What happens if the buyer doesn't like the work once they get it home?

That doesn't happen very often, but when it does happen we're happy to return it, to take the work back and find something better for them. The most important thing is to have a happy client.

Do artists come in and out of fashion?

In some sense they do, but we always continue to work with the artists that we believe in and know that there is going to be moments in their career where they are doing some experimenting and they may not be producing their best work, but if we believe in the artist we will follow them through all the way from the beginning to the end.

Do artists have a say in who their work is sold to?

Very much so. Probably not so much when they're quite young, but the way the art world is at the moment, yes, very much so. It's our role and our job to try to place their work in the best collection, so we generally aim for museums as the first tier, second tier being foundations or collections that are of very high calibre, and finally, private individuals. In certain countries like America, people tend to prefer to sell to clients who are likely to give their collections to museums, which, in America is a big thing because they get large tax benefits. It doesn't seem to be so prevalent in Britain.