Simultaneous Submissions to More Than One Juried Exhibition?

[Scott J.]

I'm wondering what people who have experience participating in juried exhibitions think about this scenario. Would it be considered acceptable -- common even -- for a photographer to submit a photographic print for consideration to a juried exhibition if the print is already being shown in an exhibition at another gallery? I'm somewhat new at exhibiting my work and want to avoid committing a potential faux pas by doing the above.

I've certainly seen some galleries stipulate that they don't want artists to submit artwork for consideration if the artists has already committed to showing the piece in another exhibition and the artwork in question can't physically be in two places at the same time -- e.g., oil paintings, ceramic works, etc. That seems perfectly logical. But with photographic prints that may exist in multiples (i.e., as in numbered editions), what is the ethical rule of thumb for such a scenario? I personally would draw the line at trying to exhibit the same image in two galleries located in the same city... but what about galleries in different cities? Different states?

It seems galleries would likely prefer to show work that can't easily be seen by patrons anywhere else. But doing so also undercuts an artist's ability to get their work in front of more people and generate sales (especially in the case of exhibitions that run for several months). How does this tug vs. pull normally resolve itself?

 

[DonJ]

The only restriction I've seen in an exhibition prospectus was that the photo could not have been exhibited recently in another gallery in the same geographic area, and is not scheduled to be shown in that area while the exhibition in question is open. A radius of X miles is sometimes specified. This maintains some degree of exclusivity for the gallery.

 

[MattKing]

1) read the rules for each exhibition;
2) decide whether simultaneous participation in more than one is what you actually want - do you want people saying "I think I've seen that somewhere else recently"?

 

[Tel]

I used to worry about that and then I read the galleries' fine print and in most cases they made no mention of rules regarding simultaneous submissions. I also used to think I should try to submit only more recent work, but I spent much of the lockdown year(s) trolling back through old work and pulling up stuff I liked best, some of which I've since submitted and had exhibited. I think, frankly, that I got too hung up on the ethics of it and that many gallery owners really didn't care.