Western Gallery curates distinct perspectives of the American West, from abstract to photorealistic and classic to contemporary. Their mission is to serve fine artists and art lovers while connecting viewers to the land, cultures and heritage of western North America. I’m excited to sit down with him to discuss the founding of the gallery, his personal story, and upcoming projects.
Were you working on any projects before Western Gallery?
Before Western Gallery, my wife and I lived in Nashville, and I was writing songs to pitch to country artists like Luke Combs. But when we had our first kid, we wanted to be closer to family. So we moved to Dallas, where both of our parents were from. After that move, I had this creative void because I wasn’t able to continue writing songs with my Nashville cowriters, and didn’t have any music friends here in town. So I started becoming more interested in visual art again.
I grew up in an artistic family. Both of my parents are painters, and I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts from UT Austin, specializing in Design. So after a long detour into the music world, I started drawing and painting again to kind of fill that void. That’s when I started the Instagram, posting my inspiration as @westerngallery. I thought, I’ll build an audience on the side while I’m finding my voice, and then when I feel like I’m good enough, I can try to sell my own work to people through Instagram.
How fast did Western Gallery receive traffic?
I started posting these pieces that I liked and really quickly and organically, a community developed on Instagram. People would comment on the pieces that I had posted, and then I would go check out where they’re coming from. A lot of them were artists, and I would see their work. I didn’t expect a real audience to grow so quickly, but when it did, I found that I was spending a lot of time going through—both on Instagram and then elsewhere online and whatever—researching artworks and artists. And the idea of turning it into a real gallery started to kind of incubate.
Were there any similar galleries around this time?
There were and are a couple galleries that I look up to in how they present their exhibitions and artists, but not many. There were very few western art focused Instagram accounts… I’m sure that played a role in the audience starting to grow around @westerngallery. Since then, a handful of other IG accounts focused on Western art of various kinds have sprung up. I think, also, that people responded to what I was doing because I really did my best to be as professional and consistent with how I posted things, and kept a very high bar for what I shared. I think that probably subconsciously signaled to people that there was more intention with this than some other accounts.
What started this special affinity to western art or western culture?
I don’t know when I started to love the Rocky Mountains, but my parents would take me and my siblings to the West on road trips when we were young and we’d go camping, whitewater rafting or we’d go exploring national parks. Later in life, I remember seeing pictures of myself hiking in the mountains with my dad and my mother when I was maybe two or three years old. I think it was just something about the cool air and the varied landscape or something that really became ingrained in me as a place that I love. As a teenager, my parents would continue taking us out West, but since they were also artists, we’d go to Santa Fe, Taos, Sedona, etc., and go through all the galleries and museums in those towns. I actually wasn’t crazy about western art then, but… I guess those impressions have had some time to incubate, and now I’m grateful for that exposure.
Do you try to instill that within your own children?
I never really thought about deliberately passing that on—taking them on similar road trips, but my wife and I have been doing it! I think the whole idea behind Western Gallery, as well, is to share that affinity and pass it on to other people to respect this crazy part of our country and continent that is so vast and majestic… to be aware of it, to respect it and to care for it. We live in suburban Dallas and it’s not an especially inspiring place to me, but the mountains in the West are really inspiring, so sure, I do want to share that with my boys.
Were there any pros and cons involved with a virtual art gallery?
Definitely, of course. I officially incorporated in January 2020 and then put out my first call for art in early February 2020 to host an online-only group show in May. The concept of an online gallery was not something that was really normal at the time. It wasn’t even like something that—most brick and mortar galleries didn’t focus on their online presence at all, still, for some reason—they were very in-person. The idea that you could view art online just didn’t translate to them because it’s not the same as seeing it in person. That was the differentiator for us… we were going to be online from the start. Now, two years into the pandemic, most galleries have pretty robust online versions of their gallery and a significant Instagram presence. It’s much more common for people to shop for works online, and we’re proud to have helped to lead the way into this new gallery model.
Was there a specific virtual event or an exhibit that Western Gallery did?
That first group show that I held was called New Western Talent and it highlighted emerging and lesser-known established artists within the Western genre. It’s now our annual flagship exhibition. I have kind of a loose take on what the Western genre is, but as long as it is about or in the west, it can qualify. That show served as a good debut venue for a lot of artists—especially with everybody being stuck at home. The opening of New Western Talent coincided with the height of pandemic isolation, which was really interesting because it created a situation where we immediately became an important venue for both artists and collectors. It really created a lot of momentum for us and it was a successful show.
My second show was held in the fall called Texas Women and it featured—obviously—work by women from Texas.
Meanwhile, I had partnered with the Taos Arts Council, who contacted me because I had this established online platform already. We put on a group show featuring artists from Taos County, New Mexico, called Taos Today to close out Western Gallery’s first year as a “real” art gallery.
Was the transition from artist to gallery owner tricky?
I think that there’s a lot that I’m still trying to learn. The biggest hurdle for me is navigating the sales process. I’ve never really been an outbound salesman before. I mean, I’ve done web consulting, which required securing and billing clients, but never had I tried to sell physical products before opening the gallery. The gallery itself is this large artistic project for me and when I get to curate shows and other things like that, it comes very naturally—I still feel like I’m an artist. I design all the logos and promotional material that goes to promote all the work and the shows, so those are all things that scratch my artistic itch.
What’s the target audience for this type of business?
It’s weird because it does feel like two different groups of people, but I guess one becomes the other and they each have their own kind of needs. For established art collectors, the trick is to help them to get comfortable with the online experience and establishing trust. They’re used to seeing the work in person before wanting to bring it home, so that can be challenge. For newer collectors, most of them are younger and have grown up at least partially with the internet and phones and Amazon and everything, so they’re much more comfortable with buying things online. With them, it’s more about educating them as to why they might want to spend thousands of dollars on an original piece of art. We have to help them to understand the value of developing a collection or meet them where they are and help educate them about the art world in general.
Is there more competition in the virtual art world?
As far as websites, I think that’s a yes and no again, or both. I think that in a way, to be a brick and mortar gallery right now and to not have a significant online presence is a poor strategy. You’d have to have the right balance of rent and foot traffic and inventory and everything, and even then, because so many people are shopping for things online right now, the in-person piece of the pie is getting smaller. I just don’t think there’s a way to win when you don’t have an online option at the moment. Not to say that there aren’t still hurdles for people to cross before they spend thousands of dollars on a piece of art online. But the reach and the ease with which they can do it… A lot of times people are intimidated to go into physical galleries, but I feel like when people are alone on their computer or their phone, the intimidation is not there. I think that Western Gallery—something about the way that we’re positioned and our curation—differentiates us well enough that I don’t feel like we’re in direct competition with other western galleries. I actually try to collaborate with other galleries as much as I can and that’s usually a win-win for everybody.
Are there any upcoming projects with Western Gallery that you’re excited about?
Our first in-person exhibition will be a pop-up this September. I’m planning for it to be in Austin because there’s a big community of collectors and artists for Western Gallery there, and then I may do a follow-up in DFW, since that’s where I’m based. In June, I’m going to be showing works from Whitney Gardner. She’s got a new body of work, which is really fantastic and it’s about her experiences in Death Valley. She was the first artist that I featured on her own about a year ago, and her work sold out, which was really great. And seeing her develop even more as an artist with this new body of work is so great. I’m really excited to show the new works.
