documents for galleries search?

[anne (bxl)]

When you visit or contact galleries, what type of documents do you present?
is it just a portfolio and a resume or is it something more sophisticated? something more imaginative? Is the personal website supportive?
who has experience or ideas?

I decide to be search-active by the spring. So I have a few weeks to get ready with documents. and need your help.

[rderr.com]

Anne

What I’ve done for a Portfolio is to make high quality photocopies of work and create a book. At Schlepers, Chausse de Waterloo, you’ll find a hard back book cover with an invisible metallic spine that can hold up to 50 pages. When you’ve the copies and they are placed in between the covers, the metal spine is then pressed to hold the pages. Looks are everything and first impressions are important.

What I’ve done for the studio is a piece of sculpture, two hands coming out of a mirror hanging on a wall holding open my portfolio at table top height so that people can stand and turn the pages without holding the book.

[rderr.com]

Anne

One other thing you can do is a give-a-away that is easy to produce and indicative of your work. For example for the super bowl here in Houston I placed a bowl of fingers., in wax, with my card attached. Great pub. Also the foot ball I made in bronze and gave as a donation got broardcast nationaly. Great pub.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooob

[robertpulley]

I have a 10 page color coppied portfolio that I made up a while back and have altered some. I bind the pages in a good quality report binder that I get at Office Max. I use photographs trimmed and placed on the page with commentary and labeling printed on from my computer.. Having never figured out how to do the images digitally, I just cut and paste and have the pages color coppied. The color is sometimes a little off, but I like it most of the time and I find the color coppies much more user friendly than slides. Plus slide coppies are a buck apiece and the 99 cent color coppies usually have 2 or more images each.

I like to do some research though and send the portfolios before I visit the gallery in person though sometimes I walk in cold. I don't know what all this is worth. Though I have mailed out quite a few packages all of my galleries so far have had some sort of third party connection before I started showing there. Someone has recommended me to the gallery.
I have met the owner at an opening, the owner new my work from another gallery before I got in touch, etc.

Just getting ready to drive from Indiana to Santa Fe in (hopefully not) vain hope of connecting with a gallery. I sent out 5 packages of portfolios, resume, and show notices.
I plan to make phone calls before I go. Three of the galleries were recommended by friends. We'll see.

Good luck.
Bob