Unlike the still common belief that making great art will attract people who might like and even buy it,  the reality for most of us is the exact opposite. You can create the most beautiful piece of art, but if you are unable to get it “out there”, your chances for an exhibition or sale — even just a retweet — are slim to none.

But it does make sense that things are like that. There are hundreds of thousands of other artists doing their thing here in the EU — millions if you are living in the Americas — so expecting exposure and sales to happen by themselves is a bad business plan and an even worse outlook on life.

Let’s face it; it’s one thing that your exhibitions and art sales aren’t taking off, but judging your skill and value only on such merits is an even worse feeling to have.

So what can we do?!

Business, like life, is quite similar to the experience of falling in love — before we go and explore the various tactics of courtship, we actually have to find someone we’d like to court. It’s just easier to decide whether to go with champagne and chocolate or a bungee jumping gift certificate, when you actually have someone to give it to.

That means getting out there and attending gallery openings — working the crowd and starting to create some public presence in the circles we are aiming for. And instead of going directly to a big name gallery like Gagosian or Saatchi, you could start with the smaller, more approachable gallery spaces.

Do some research and find the places that show artists with similar backgrounds and experience to your own. And take care to find out in what a certain gallery specialises in; you don’t want to end up courting someone who only exhibits new media art if all you do is traditional realist painting.

After you made a list of all viable gallery spaces, take some time and read a bit about their owners and curators. Unlike the creepy Facebook stalker that knows your mothers maiden name, it may be enough to find a few common points you might have with the people you are aiming to charm.

And it doesn’t have to be art related — aim for hobbies and other things people are fond of. Maybe they like golf and you’re an avid golfer too. Maybe both of you are foodies and you could talk about bell peppers and goat cheese. If nothing else, you can always talk about the work being shown, so having at least a vague idea about what their current show is about is nice to have too.

Exposure does happen by itself, and like buying followers on Instagram, getting an expensive agent to handle your public presence probably won’t do much, especially if you’re just starting out.

So go gallerist hunting on Facebook and find the best fit for your work, read up on what a birdie is if you have to, but most importantly, get out there and overcome that bit of social anxiety that all of us have to face at some point. It’ll be worth it in the end!