What Goes in a Gallery Submission

Why Pack Completeness Matters

The person who opens your email or portal entry is sorting fit under time pressure. Artquest’s guidance on approaching galleries asks artists to send a statement, pictures with size, materials and year, and any useful reviews, while warning against large files that clog inboxes. Stephenson’s Gallery, a working commercial venue that still invites submissions, names a concrete list: introduction, statement, CV, up to ten images, and a website link. Hudson Gallery’s published checklist adds a separate sheet for date, media, dimensions and retail price beside 10 to 20 images. Those pages disagree on count and channel; they agree on a small, named kit.

A complete pack is also a reliability signal. Clara Lieu’s Art Prof notes from gallery-director years describe inboxes full of packets that miss the venue’s focus or arrive without proof that the sender can meet deadlines. Missing captions, mixed measurement systems and a CV that cannot be searched for exhibition dates create the same friction as weak photography. You cannot force a yes with paperwork. You can remove the reasons a busy reader closes the tab after thirty seconds.

Pack discipline protects your own time. Once the master files exist (image set, statement short and long, bio, CAA-style CV, inventory spreadsheet with prices), each new opportunity becomes a cut-and-label job rather than a week of reinvention. Mallory Shotwell’s application-package advice for artists frames the same habit: keep a master CV and image inventory updated so customising for a call is fast. The submission is temporary. The archive is permanent.

How to Assemble the Pack Before You Send

Treat the gallery’s written guidelines as the brief and this article as a default kit you adapt. Copy the venue’s required items into a checklist. Note image count, file type, maximum megabytes, naming rules, whether prices belong in the first send, and whether the channel is email, portal or post. Then pull files from your master archive rather than inventing new documents under deadline panic.

Order of work that saves rework: confirm the images first, because weak documentation sinks the rest; lock captions and inventory numbers so statement, price list and cover note all refer to the same titles; refresh the CV and statement for the current body of work; write the cover note last, because it has to name what you are attaching. Artquest’s research-first rule still applies at this stage: if the programme does not fit, stop assembling. The pack is for venues you have already shortlisted.

Commercial galleries, craft spaces and independent project rooms often want a similar stack with different emphasis. Crafts Council contributors stress professional online presence and price points that survive gallery commission. The Ropewalk’s exhibition-proposal guidelines ask for concept outline, up to ten images with media, dimensions and price, short CV or biography with statement, parallel education activity, and budget notes. Proposal language differs from a commercial “consider my work” email, yet the documents overlap. Build one coherent archive that can spawn both shapes.

Confirm policy, channel and count

Open the Contact, Submissions or For Artists page and write the rule in one sentence: closed, seasonal, portal-only, email with attachments, or silent. Closed policies end the pack work for that venue. Seasonal windows tell you when to send, not what to invent. Portal calls often fix field lengths and image dimensions; CaFÉ’s artist help, for example, requires JPEG or JPG, at least 1,200 pixels on the longest side, and under 5 MB per file, with title, medium, height, width, depth, sale status and year as form fields. Venues that invite email packs, such as Stephenson’s Gallery, ask for an introduction plus statement, CV, up to ten images and a site link, and ask artists not to follow up by phone.

If the site is silent, send a short cover note with a single portfolio URL or one PDF under a common limit of about 10 to 20 MB, and keep full-resolution files ready for a second request. Do not invent a twenty-file dump because silence feels like permission. Approach manners for that decision sit in the sibling etiquette guide; here the rule is pack restraint.

Build from a master archive, not from scratch

Keep one folder structure you can trust: 01_images_web, 02_images_hires, 03_cv, 04_statement_bio, 05_inventory_prices, 06_press_pdfs. Name web images with a consistent pattern such as Lastname_Title_Year.jpg. Keep a spreadsheet that mirrors every caption: inventory code, title, year, medium, dimensions (H × W × D), edition if any, retail price, availability, location. Shotwell’s package method and inventory templates used across gallery checklists (Hudson, Blue Raven and similar commercial pages) treat that sheet as the spine. The cover note and portal fields are views of the same data.

Update the archive on a monthly rhythm when work changes, not the night before a deadline. Add new titles, retire sold pieces from active submission sets, and replace photographs when documentation improves. A gallerist who asks for three more works next week should receive a reply in days, not a scramble that produces crooked phone shots.

Images, Captions and the Inventory Sheet

Images carry the submission. Statement and CV explain; the pictures decide whether anyone reads further. College Art Association digital-format guidance treats accurate identification of media, materials and dimensions as the maker’s responsibility, and asks institutions to state preferred resolution, file type and caption fields in the call. Artists still need a default when the call is thin. Working practice across CaFÉ, CAA placement guidance and commercial gallery pages converges on JPEG for review, consistent naming, and captions that a stranger can trust without opening a second file.

Selection belongs to the portfolio craft covered in artist portfolio: a coherent current body, strongest work first, count matching the brief. Photography method belongs with how to photograph artwork. This section locks the submission layer: file specs, naming, captions, inventory and the price column when sales are in play.

File size, colour space and naming

For screen review, aim for a long edge near 1,500 to 2,000 pixels unless the call sets another number. CaFÉ’s floor is 1,200 pixels and a hard ceiling under 5 MB per JPEG. CAA placement guidance for academic image samples often suggests a maximum near 2,000 pixels in any direction and files that stay modest in weight (around 1 MB in older call language). Blue Raven Gallery’s public page asks for about 2,000 pixels on the longest side at 72 dpi for digital review. Keep a separate high-resolution archive (TIFF or large JPEG) for print and loan requests; do not attach those files to a first email.

Use sRGB for web and email submission unless the brief demands another profile. Crop to the work or to a clean install view. Remove clutter, glare and crooked frames. Name files so a downloaded attachment stays identifiable: Lastname_ShortTitle_2024.jpg or Lastname_Title_Year_01.jpg. Avoid spaces, punctuation that breaks servers, and camera defaults such as IMG_4532.jpg. If the call asks for numbered filenames that match an image list (01, 02), obey that scheme and keep your archival names in the inventory sheet.

Installation, detail and process shots need labels in the filename or caption (_install, _detail) so a reviewer does not treat a wall view as the object’s true scale. Time-based stills need duration and format in the caption even when the portal only shows a poster frame.

Captions, inventory codes and when prices appear

CAA digital-format conventions ask for name, italicised or underlined title, medium, completion date, and dimensions in height × width order for two-dimensional work, with depth added for three-dimensional work. Keep one measurement system across the pack; UK submissions use centimetres as the default. State edition number and size for prints. Note collection or site if the work cannot travel.

An inventory or image list is the same data in table form. Hudson Gallery asks for a separate document with date, media, dimensions and retail price beside the image set. The Ropewalk wants media, dimensions and price on the image submission itself. Woodlands Gallery’s supplementary programme invites a current retail price list of unframed works among optional materials. Build the sheet once. Export a PDF or paste rows into portal fields as required.

Prices on first contact are venue-dependent. Some commercial spaces want retail figures at once so they can judge fit against their collector band. Others prefer to discuss numbers after interest. Crafts Council guidance on working with galleries reminds makers to calculate commission before they quote: the retail tag must leave both studio and gallery solvent. Exact pricing method belongs with how to price your art. For the pack, keep one private master list and a submission extract that matches the images you sent. Never invent a higher “gallery retail” that collapses when a collector asks for past invoices.

Written Documents: Statement, Bio and CV

The three prose pieces answer different questions. The statement explains the work. The bio situates the person in a short paragraph. The CV lists verifiable credits in reverse chronological order. Confusing them produces a statement that reads like a CV in sentences, or a bio that restates the statement. College Art Association résumé conventions exist for venue proposals: one to four pages, readable type, no decorative fonts, no headshots on the résumé itself, PDF preferred when the format is optional.

Length defaults help when the call is vague. Statements for applications often sit at 150 to 300 words; keep a longer studio version on the website if you need it. Bios for web or PDF often sit at 80 to 150 words in the third person, with some venues allowing up to about 250. CVs for gallery proposals stay short; the full academic CV is a different document. Deep craft for each form lives in sibling articles: how to write an artist statement, how to write an artist bio, and artist CV.

Statement and bio without overlap

Write the statement about current practice: what you make, how you work, what questions the work opens. Keep jargon sparse enough that a non-specialist dealer can follow it. Avoid pasting biography, award lists or sales language into the statement. If the venue asks for a proposal statement (The Ropewalk’s concept outline is an example), write to the exhibition or body you are offering, including scale and how the work uses the room, rather than recycling a generic website paragraph.

Keep the bio factual and scannable: medium, base city, two or three credits a stranger can verify, and one line on training if it matters for the programme. Third person is the default for gallery PDFs and websites. First person belongs in the statement unless the call says otherwise. Update both documents when the body of work on the walls changes; an outdated statement about a finished series next to new images reads as carelessness.

CV fields galleries scan first

CAA artist-résumé guidance lists the sections venues expect to scan: contact details, education, exhibitions (solo then group, or clear labels), awards, residencies, bibliography or press, collections, and related professional experience where relevant. Reverse chronology under each heading. Honest dates. Selectable text in a PDF. No coloured paper, no image collage on the CV page, no padding with unrelated hospitality jobs.

For a commercial submission, the exhibition and residency blocks do more work than a long teaching list. For a publicly funded project space that asks about education activity (again The Ropewalk model), workshops and talks earn a short section. Match the cut to the venue without rewriting history. If you are early-career, a one-page résumé with real shows beats four pages of filler. Link the website once at the top; do not bury contact details.

Cover Note and Price List

The cover note (cover letter in older checklists) is the human layer that tells the reader why this pack exists. Discover.art’s submission checklist and commercial gallery pages such as Hudson and Woodlands treat it as a required or ideal piece beside statement and CV. It is not a second artist statement. It is a short professional letter: who you are, why this programme, what you attached, what you ask for.

The price list or inventory with retail figures is the commercial twin of the image list. Some venues merge them. Some want prices only after a reply. Either way, the numbers must exist in your archive before you promise availability. Approach etiquette for when to send the note sits next door; the content rules sit here.

Cover note structure that stays under a page

Aim for half a page of plain prose, or under about 200 words if the note is the email body. Name a specific person when the site lists one. State medium and career stage in one sentence. Name one concrete link to the programme (a recent exhibition, a roster artist, a craft or medium focus). List the attachments or the single URL. Make one ask: portfolio review, consideration for the current call, or a studio visit if they want to continue. Offer further images on request.

Skip flattery without a fact, urgency language, and representation demands in the first line. Skip “I hope this email finds you well.” Artquest’s contact advice is still the spine: personal email to a named person, statement and pictures with size and materials, no inbox-clogging files, no hassling for a reply. If guidelines forbid attachments, put everything behind one link and say so in the note.

Price list fields and commission awareness

A usable price list for submission includes inventory code, title, year, medium, dimensions, edition details, retail price, and availability (available, reserved, sold). Note framed versus unframed when that changes the number, as Woodlands Gallery’s unframed retail list implies. Keep currency consistent. Round to figures staff can quote aloud.

Commission maths belongs in pricing practice, not in a lecture inside the cover note. Crafts Council contributors state the practical test: after the gallery’s cut for rent, staff and promotion, your net must still work. If the venue publishes a commission (The Ropewalk states 40% plus VAT on sale-or-return in its guidelines), use that figure when you set retail. If the venue is silent, hold a private assumption based on your research and adjust when a contract appears. Do not put speculative “studio price / gallery price” pairs on the public sheet; one retail number per work prevents contradictions.

Packaging: Email, Single PDF and Portal Uploads

The same content fails or succeeds based on container. Artquest warns against large attachments. Stephenson’s Gallery wants materials by email and a website link. CaFÉ and similar portals want discrete JPEGs plus form fields. Academic and residency calls often want one PDF package under a megabyte budget. Choose the container the brief names. When the brief is open, prefer a link to a clean website or a single modest PDF over a cloud folder with nested directories named final_final.

A practical email pack: subject line that states medium and purpose; cover note in the body; one PDF under 10 to 20 MB containing statement, bio, CV and a contact sheet or sequenced images with captions; or three to five small preview JPEGs plus a URL if the venue prefers separate files. A practical portal pack: export JPEGs to the stated pixel and megabyte limits; paste captions into required fields; upload PDF statement and CV only if the form allows. A practical proposal pack for project spaces: concept outline, image set with prices, short CV or biography and statement, education offer, budget notes, contact block.

Test every link on a phone. Open the PDF on a second computer. Confirm fonts embedded and images sharp. Name the PDF Lastname_Portfolio_GalleryName_2026.pdf so downloaded files stay identifiable in a busy downloads folder. Remove password protection unless the venue asks for security theatre that blocks review.

Edge Cases: Media, Venues and Materials You Should Not Send

Search language treats “gallery submission” as one object. Practice splits. Commercial dealers, craft galleries, university galleries, artist-run spaces and museums use different intake rules and different document weights. Applying a blue-chip refusal letter to a regional craft venue, or a craft open-submission habit to a museum curator inbox, wastes the pack you built.

Sculpture, installation and ceramics need install shots and clear depth measurements; a single front photograph understates scale. Time-based work needs duration, playback format and a still or trailer within stated limits; The Ropewalk notes limited AV facilities and asks artists to budget for that honesty. Editions need edition size, number available and whether proofs exist. Collaborative work needs named collaborators on the caption and CV credit line.

Museums and collecting institutions often refuse unsolicited artist portfolios and exhibition proposals. Use each institution’s own inquiry pages and treat them as a separate pipeline from commercial packs; browse context through the museums directory rather than recycling a dealer email. Artist-run spaces may care more about experimental fit and collective labour than about retail polish; add a short note on install help or shared costs if that is the model. University and municipal galleries may demand accessibility statements or education outcomes; follow their PDF.

Do not send original artwork unsolicited. Do not send video unless asked. Do not include a portrait of yourself unless the brief requests it (some commercial pages do; most professional venue proposals do not need a headshot on the CV). Do not password-lock cloud folders. Do not submit the same generic PDF to forty venues with a mail-merge first line. Physical leave-behinds are optional in a digital-first intake world; if you print anything, match the digital captions and keep the stack thin.

Open calls and juried shows are cousins of gallery packs, not identical twins. They often fix theme, fee and exact image count. Build from the same archive, then cut to the call. Vanity or pay-to-exhibit offers that demand large upfront fees for “representation” deserve slow reading; fee-led marketing is not the same as a curated programme. Spotting those offers belongs with approach research; the pack rule is simple: do not empty your archive into a business that earns from artists first and from buyers second.

What Professionals Keep Ready Year-Round

Experienced artists treat the pack as infrastructure. They refresh the image set when a series finishes, not when a deadline appears. They keep CAA-format CVs current. They maintain one inventory spreadsheet with prices so a gallerist’s “send three more and a price list” email gets a same-week reply. Crafts Council advice on professional online presence matches that habit: dealers invest time where the public trail already looks coherent.

They customise without rebuilding. A craft gallery that sells functional work may need process notes and unframed prices. A project space may need a proposal paragraph and education offer. A commercial roster inquiry may need fewer images and a tighter cover note. The master files stay stable; the extract changes. Shotwell’s monthly update rhythm for CV, image folders and inventory is the boring version of that professionalism.

They separate first contact from second request. First contact carries the slim kit. High-resolution files, condition notes, shipping estimates and full edition contracts wait for interest. That order keeps the inbox light and the studio organised. It also matches Artquest’s warning against too much information in the first message.

They diversify routes while the pack sits ready: residencies, public commissions, open calls, self-organised shows. Cornell career guidance for visual artists states the blunt version in representation conversations: a gallery partnership is optional among several channels. A cold-ready pack supports those channels without becoming the only plan.

Costs You Should Budget For

Building a submission pack is time cost first until you hire help. Budget hours for photographing and editing, caption and inventory entry, statement and CV revision, PDF layout, and website upkeep. Travel to document large installs or to shoot in better light is a real expense; plan it against a batch of opportunities rather than one email.

Optional paid help includes a photographer for difficult surfaces (glass, high gloss, large installation), a designer for a clean multi-page PDF if your layout skills are weak, and occasional legal review later if a consignment contract arrives. Those invoices differ from marketing firms that sell “guaranteed gallery placement” for a large upfront sum. No reputable dealer is bought that way.

Opportunity cost matters. Weeks spent reformatting the same ten images for closed programmes are weeks not spent on the body of work that would make a warm introduction plausible. Put most of the week into the studio and a smaller, steady share into archive maintenance. Printing leave-behinds is optional; many venues prefer links. Domain renewal, cloud backup and colour-managed monitor calibration are quiet costs that protect the pack’s credibility.

When to Get Help Instead of Sending Another File

Call a peer, mentor or artist-union advice line when a venue asks for rights language you do not understand, when exclusivity or commission terms appear in writing, or when a fee-based “representation” invoice is hard to parse. Artquest’s commercial-gallery relationship material is a useful pre-signature read once interest is mutual. First contracts should stay short enough to test the relationship.

Seek practical help when your photographs cannot represent reflective, very large or time-based work, and a second round of DIY shoots still fails. Seek editorial help when every statement draft collapses into jargon your peers cannot paraphrase. Seek peer review when your inventory prices sit far outside the band of the galleries you target; pricing method is a separate craft, but a submission that quotes fantasy figures wastes the pack.

Do not hire someone to spam galleries with a generic PDF. Do not pay for introductions the introducer cannot stand behind by name. Do not treat a polished pack as a substitute for programme research. The workable path remains specific: fit first, then files that open, then patience.

FAQ

These questions repeat the decisions artists face while building files: what to include, how many images, whether prices belong in the first send, and how gallery packs differ from museum mail. Search results for this keyword mix template cover letters, “get representation” promises and checklist graphics with thin sourcing. The answers below stay on pack contents and specs. Soft approach and follow-up belong with how to approach a gallery. Representation definitions belong with the pending sibling on that term.

What documents belong in a standard gallery submission?

Plan for images with captions, an artist statement, a short bio, a CV or résumé, a cover note, and a price or inventory list when the venue sells work. Add a website link. Add one press PDF only if it helps. Stephenson’s Gallery’s public list (introduction, statement, CV, up to ten images, website) is a usable commercial baseline; Hudson’s checklist adds the separate price-capable inventory sheet. Always cut or expand to the venue’s own page.

How many images should I send?

Send the number the guidelines state. Working defaults sit around 8 to 15 for many commercial and project submissions; Stephenson’s Gallery caps at ten; Hudson allows 10 to 20; The Ropewalk asks for up to ten for proposals. Cohesion beats volume. If the site is silent, a tight set of current works behind one link beats twenty unrelated files.

What image specifications should I use when the gallery is vague?

Use JPEG, sRGB, about 1,200 to 2,000 pixels on the long edge, and keep each file modest in weight (CaFÉ’s portal rule is under 5 MB with a 1,200-pixel minimum). Name files Lastname_Title_Year.jpg. Keep high-resolution masters offline until asked. Prefer a link or one small PDF over a large attachment, in line with Artquest’s inbox advice.

Should my first submission include prices?

Include prices when the guidelines ask for them or when the venue is a sales-led commercial or craft gallery that reviews retail fit (Hudson, The Ropewalk and similar pages). If the brief is silent and the space is not sales-led, hold the list ready and offer it on request. Keep one retail figure per work that survives gallery commission maths; build that figure with the pricing guide in this series.

How long should the artist statement and CV be?

For most venue proposals, plan a statement of about 150 to 300 words and a CV of one to four pages in CAA résumé style. Bios often sit between about 80 and 150 words. Proposal-led spaces may ask for a one-page concept statement instead of, or as well as, a practice statement. Follow word limits on portals without padding.

What goes in the cover note?

A short introduction, one proof that you know the programme, a list of what you attached or linked, and a single clear ask. Keep it under about 200 words when it is the email body. Do not paste the full statement. Do not demand representation in the opening line. Name the recipient when you can.

Can I use the same PDF for every gallery?

Keep master files, then customise the cover note, image selection and any proposal paragraph. Mass-identical packs read as careless. File specs may also differ (portal JPEG fields versus a single PDF). The archive is reusable; the send is specific.

Do museums want the same submission pack as commercial galleries?

Often they want nothing unsolicited. Many museums publish refusal language for artist portfolios and exhibition proposals. Use each museum’s stated channel, and treat commercial gallery packs as a separate track. Programme context for public institutions sits in the museums directory.