A guide for artists
The Valise Method
A toolbox of principles and best practices to help artists feel calm, confident, and in control as their work moves through the world
Twenty-five years ago, when I moved to New York and fell into the contemporary art world, I knew very little about the community I was joining. The ways in which everyone came together, built relationships, and earned their livelihoods was opaque to me. I’ve since spent a quarter century working as a gallery employee, critic, magazine and book editor, curator, and nonprofit gallery director and am twenty years into a loving marriage to an artist. So I’ve distilled what I’ve learned from jobs, peers, friends, and reading into this short document.
As I wrote two years ago, “No one dreams of becoming an artist because they want to manage a small business.” But as I’ve learned, the difference between a life in art and making a living from your art will require you treating your studio like one—even if only for a few hours each week. Think of the admin time like preventative medicine; a little diligence up front prevents painful moments later. Ross and I built Valise to make it easy and even (dare I say) fun to protect your autonomy and keep your options open.
The list below is a toolbox of principles, ideas, and best practices for artists. We want every artist to feel comfortable handling the business side of their creative lives; confident in their relationships with dealers, curators, publishers, and others; and calm and in control as their work moves through the world.
–Brian Sholis, cofounder
When in doubt, record the details
Your artworks trace your responses to the world and, as your work evolves and you grow as a person, it’s important to record that. Keep the facts like dates, mediums, and dimensions straight. But also save progress photos, inspiration, and notes on technique and on how pieces grew out of earlier works. Then also record the business facts like receipts, shipping manifests, consignment terms, and buyer names, because you never know when future-you (and sometimes lawyers, accountants, or historians) will need them. This is also material that curators, editors, and registrars use to do their work. Opportunities can arrive suddenly and relationships can change quickly. Good records make you responsive and resilient.
Build a single source of truth so you’re not improvising
Set up one system that holds the canonical version of each artwork’s images, facts, status, and history—so you can answer questions quickly and avoid having to say what I’ve heard too often: a “Let me get back to you” that hangs for weeks; “I’ll just reprint the photograph”; or even “I’m not sure what I used to make that.” The faster and more accurately you can answer practical questions—availability, credits, captions, tech needs, packing specs—the easier it is for dealers, curators, and others to include you in their projects.
We’ve built Valise to be that source of truth, but the principle works no matter what tool or system you choose. Make sure that important information is in one place, is safe there, and you can access it and, when necessary, share it easily.
IDs count: treat your work like an institution would
Give every artwork a unique identifier that’s yours (even if galleries or museums add theirs later). IDs keep records clean and make packing, shipping, and communication easier than “No, not that Untitled, this Untitled.” The majority of the artists I’ve seen use their initials and a sequential run of numbers (e.g., BS-001 then BS-002). Valise automatically applies a unique ID to each artwork you upload and prevents you from reusing an existing one.
Capture the money trail
Sometimes galleries and institutions split or reimburse costs; sometimes they don’t. Either way, receipts make pricing, getting reimbursed, and taxes easier. Keep your receipts, and link that documentation to the relevant artworks. Whether it’s a foundry you paid to help you make a sculpture, a framer you paid to create a custom frame for your painting, or just a hardware-store run, it’s helpful to know how much you’ve spent when it comes time to price and sell a work. The same applies to projects with museums, publishers, or public-art commissioning bodies, where budgets often include production, installation, travel, per diems, or equipment rental.
Later, your gallery may sell a work but then wait weeks or months for the client to pay. So it’s also important for you to record what’s been sold and whether you’ve been paid, too.
One small note about pricing: discipline matters. Write down your current prices, what they’re based on, and when (and why) you change them, so you’re not improvising under pressure. To the extent possible, try to keep pricing consistent across channels and over time, and treat discounts or special terms as something you decide deliberately and record—not something you invent in the moment.
Be easy to work with
Check your email and your DMs! Responsiveness is a superpower. Quickly assessing what’s available, where it’s located, its exact size, and where the high-res images are will help you take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. Curators and editors run on deadlines; commissioning bodies run on schedules—quick, clear answers can be the difference between being included and being passed over.
At the same time, being polite in stressful situations and gracious in your communications (even or especially when you’re saying “no”) will help you build a reputation as being easy to work with. People remember who made things smoother—and who didn’t.
Relationships are the medium
The art world runs on relationships. So when you find people you genuinely like or admire, show up to their openings, send an encouraging note or a thank-you, occasionally pick up the coffee tab if you can. Like a gallery’s program? Tell them, read what they publish, follow their artists. The same goes for magazines, museums, festivals, artist-run spaces, and public-art programs: support what you admire. Be someone who makes others feel like they aren’t going it alone. This isn’t like LinkedIn schmoozing, it’s a way to form a community through gestures of solidarity—and pick up inspiration and encouragement along the way.
Clarify terms early and forthrightly
A solo-show offer can grow out of friendly conversation, but once you say yes, you and the gallery are both acting as small businesses. So early on, ask plainly how the relationship works: what commission they take, what they cover, what you’re expected to handle. In most cases that means getting explicit about shipping (and packing materials), wall-to-wall insurance, installation and equipment needs, photography (of both works and installation views), storage for uninstalled or unsold pieces, and—less commonly—production costs or advances.
This isn’t about negotiating every line item, but about making sure you and your partner are not harboring differing assumptions. The same is true of commissions, whether for a private client or public art, and for museum group shows and biennials or festivals. Clarity is how good relationships stay good when pressure arrives (in the form of deadlines, money, damaged work, a staff change). When everyone knows the terms, you can focus on your work, collaborate smoothly, and avoid the kinds of problems that can make you feel anxious or powerless later. Put the agreement in writing if you can, but even if it stays informal, make sure you record the details. (Are you sensing a theme here?)
Before opening night
It’s your artwork, but treat a solo exhibition like a collaboration. Make more work than fits into the space, which lets the exhibition become a set of decisions you make with the gallery. They know what works in their space, and the conversations you have while making the work help them later when they’re describing it to collectors and curators. The goal is to avoid making too many important decisions while stressed about the install.
Keep a living list of the pieces under consideration, with images, dimensions, status, and notes, and use it to narrow toward a final selection and a rough sequence before everything’s laid out on bumpers and cardboard in the gallery. Once the checklist is set, record the consignment clearly (what went out, when, and for how long). In fact, just about all this advice goes for group exhibitions, too. And in either case, even without formal paperwork, you’ll benefit from your own clean record.
After the show: do a “closeout” and decide what’s next
As a show closes, don’t let the momentum fade into a fog of missing details. Ask the gallery for the full set of high-resolution documentation and the photographer credit. Confirm, in writing if possible, what sold and to whom, what you’re owed, and what remains unsold.
Then confirm the “afterlife” of the show: how long the gallery will store remaining works, whether they’ll be taken to fairs, and how loans or outside requests will be handled (through you or through the gallery). Finally, if it feels like a relationship worth extending, have a higher-level conversation: do you both want to move toward an ongoing representation relationship, and what would that actually mean in practice? As the gallery’s attention turns to the next artist, this is the moment to ensure you have what you need to avoid scrambles later.
Keep two CVs and a press kit
Keep two CVs and a press kit, and keep both current. Your short, public CV is the clean version you can share instantly: selected shows, key publications, awards, and collections, formatted simply. Your comprehensive private CV is the full record: every exhibition, talk, screening, grant, residency, and collaboration, plus dates, venues, and links. Messy is fine, as long as it’s complete.
A press kit is the same idea for your public-facing materials: a concise bio, a few high-quality images, an artist statement if you use one, and PDFs or links to the write-ups you think interpret your work best. When a curator, writer, or gallery asks for information, you shouldn’t have to create this on the fly. Make it easy for others to advocate for your work accurately and quickly.
Rely on yourself—and bet on yourself
Rely on yourself—and bet on yourself, too. The art world runs on a surprising number of handshake relationships, and that can feel good until something changes: a staff member leaves, a gallery forgets a detail, a payment gets delayed, a work’s location becomes uncertain. Don’t outsource responsibility for your archive, your consignment terms, or your sales records. You can trust partners deeply without making them the sole keeper of your history.
At the same time, don’t outsource your ambition. No dealer, curator, or institution will be as invested in your long-term trajectory as you are. Keeping control of the information about your work—images, availability, history, prices, placements—makes you more resilient and more mobile. It lets you grow beyond a single relationship or start new chapters without starting over.
Trust tools, but don’t be locked in
Your studio records take admin time but aren’t just “admin”—they’re the evidence of your career: what you made, how it moved, who showed it, who bought it, what it cost, what you were paid. That information is precious, and you should choose tools that respect that by being reliable, fast, and well-crafted.
But trust should never require surrendering control. Any system you use should let you export your data in a legible, portable format so you can switch tools, share records with collaborators, or keep an offline copy without drama. Assume you’ll need this archive for decades. The right mindset is: use software to lighten your load, not to create a new dependency. If a service stops meeting your needs, you should be able to leave cleanly—and take your life’s work with you.