BTS: Putting together an exhibition (Part 1/2)

The dirty reality of exhibits.

Oct 21, 2023

I've come to present to you a very overdue newsletter- and now you know why. I want to apologize for those that were waiting. So here is a long, comprehensive story of everything that happened and the shit that went through my head this past month. Buckle up for part 1.

I know this is very early, but I’ve spent days prepping and a few thousand dollars assembling everything needed for this exhibit. If you’re interested, check out my website here where you can buy my work that was exhibited. I’ve assembled editions for each piece at a quite affordable price, so make sure to get them quick if you’re interested. I can also take print-only orders via email. Print-only pieces without frames and mattes are at -$100 the list prices on my website.
( ulyssesaokigallery@gmail.com )

And yes, “The waiting man” is up for sale, edition of 5 in this frame. You will get to know in this newsletter… but I was kinda forced to sell it for a low price. (lol)

I don’t think I’ll ever sell it for this price again framed, so go check it out here if you’re interested…………….

The Story and How it Goes

About a month ago, I was approached to do an exhibition for a photo fair. Apparently a gallery owner found out about my work through the entire “stolen artwork” debacle. I guess there was a silver lining. Turns out, I was the only solo exhibitor and every other booth was done by galleries or publishers. Seemed like a great opportunity, and as a result, I think it was. But I had my doubts and worries— my spidey senses were ultimately, pretty accurate.

Some context. I’ve had my work exhibited around the world. But people have always been very kind to me and done the heavy lifting. Usually, we would discuss the images they want, think through it, I would send them the data, and they’d simply print it out for me and do the framing. Boom! An exhibit is done in a totally foreign country, without me even being there or really knowing what’s happening.

This time, I found out that this wasn’t the case. Although I was an “invited” artist, what that meant was that they’d give me a small wall. And… wait for it…

Yeah just the wall. Oh and some lights.

I’ve done a solo exhibit in Japan 2 years ago dealing with something similar, but I wasn’t ready for this one since I had only about 3 weeks of prep time during my current 60-70 hour work weeks. Printing costs, ordering custom frames, ordering custom mattes, assembling the framed prints… these were things that I knew were coming my way. But what I didn’t know was everything else that was going to be thrown my way.

I honestly thought of saying no and giving up twice at this point. Once when they asked my. I only had 3 weeks to do this and work has absolutely been demolishing my QOL already. Then I found out they won’t really help me with anything- planning, setup, printing, framing, advice on fucking anything. I thought of even just ghosting this whole thing because I’ve never heard of this event, and I knew so little about it. Yeah, this might sound a bit severe, but you learn to protect yourself at all costs after doing this small independent artist schtick for 8 years.

Thank you for reading Shoot.. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Execution

The first hurdle was planning out the images. They basically gave me a few dimensions (sizes of the walls I have) and that was it. Since it was a photo fair, I couldn’t visit the venue to see what I had to work with. The wall will be built a day before the exhibit, and I’ll have a few hours during midnight to see for my eyes and set everything up.

The image they sent me

The walls also weren’t that big. This meant I needed to be able to ruminate on my choices… and ruminate I did. It took me about a week to think everything through. And that was basically all I had, because I knew I needed to order custom frames and mattes, which will take about a week or 2 to arrive.

Here are some thoughts that ultimately allowed me to pull the trigger on the frames:

The space isn’t that large. Horizontal space was limited
The surroundings of the space is quite busy
Everyone else except for me is an org (like a gallery or publisher)
Real art dealers might be coming
Lots of galleries in Japan are very “contemporary”. Not much room for more traditional street photography (aesthetics)
Showing too many faces of people in photographs can bring lots of hate towards you in Japan. It’s not illegal, but I’ve seen close photographers get burned to the ground and cyber-bullied because of this. Publishers will hate you too.
However, my photos tend to be more strong from a single-image POV

These thoughts made me come to the conclusion that I wanted a way to garner maximum attention to the details of the images, use up as much vertical space as possible, but not make everything so crammed horizontally.

I decided to test out something new, although I had to be very careful about photo selection. I decided to only order vertical frames or square frames, make everything white to match the walls, and use lots of space for the mattes.

Since many of my stronger images were horizontal, I had to carefully select vertical images, or horizontal images that will do well without being printed too large.

I accepted the fact that my recent photos had more of a contemporary, cleaner aesthetic to them. I think this step of embracing what I have become, really helped with the overall sensibility of this time’s exhibition.

In terms of the overall concept, my idea was to have all 9 images represent an urban tempo, have 4 horizontal images on the foreground walls that pair well together, and sequence smoothly into the more contemporary and desaturated images towards the center.

When I ordered the frames from a company though, the place told me that they couldn’t do what I wanted to because of the short timeframe. Challenge numero 1. We discussed options, and they did what they can within the given timeframe. (They told me that the sizes I wanted for the frames will take time, so they only gave me the option to buy proprietary frames within their shop)

Frame + matte costs for 9 photos ended up to be about $1000. Not too bad.

I waited for the frames, which successfully arrived 2 days before the exhibition setup day. I went to a hardware store to go buy my favorite Hahnemuhle paper and some inc for my printer. Both of these had raised prices since I last saw them. There goes another $200. I opened the frames up that night, and started to print a few images just to test that my 7 year old Canon Pro-10S won’t die on me. 3 images were spit out successfully, it was past midnight, so I called it a day to finish the printing and assembling the next day.

And that’s where I fucked up.

Well, I didn’t fuck up. Actually, writing this out, I’m surprised at how well I handled this short-period prep.

To be continued.