Gina Julian
Let’s talk about working at an art gallery!
I’ve been working at Elliott Fouts Gallery since my junior year in High School. To be totally honest I started working here because my mom insisted that I get a summer job and she thought the gallery would be a great environment for me. Plus, she and my now step-dad Elliott were dating at the time and I’m pretty sure it was her way of making sure we got to know each other.
Family dynamics aside, I really enjoyed my Sunday job at the gallery. The job was purely clerical - I mostly stamped envelopes and stuck labels to the thousands of postcards the gallery would send out each month. As my Sundays at the gallery raked up I realized I really enjoyed the gallery environment and seeing as I grew up in an artistic household (my mom is a hairdresser and my dad is a professional photographer) I felt at home.
Fast forward to my senior year, I decided to attend UC Davis for college and through my experience at the gallery, developed an interest in studying Art History as my major. Fast forward again (four years!) I graduated and Elliott offered me a full time job at the gallery. I’m pretty sure I’m one of only a few people who is using their Art History major in an art-related field and looking back, I am so glad I chose to study a subject I was interested in and passionate about. My parents have always been supportive of me pursing my interests and that decision really paid off.
I’ve now been working at the gallery for almost TEN years. Crazy how time flies. I’ve learned a lot about the art business and it’s amazing to think it’s been that long. But, I will be honest, working at an art gallery is not quite as glamorous as everyone thinks. Sadly I’m not Charlotte from Sex In The City and rarely do I get to wear my colorful frocks to work!
My average day consists of A LOT of computer work. Entering new inventory, designing our email campaigns, updating our website, etc. It’s a lot of clerical work as you might expect. Our gallery is for profit, meaning we are essentially a high-end retail space and we exist by selling paintings. Everything is for sale here unlike a museum.
Each month I prepare our monthly shows, which usually consists of photographing the art, logging the art, entering the pieces into our inventory, updating our website, designing the marketing materials for the show, prepping the exhibition space, hanging the art, and selling the art. I think my favorite part of that process is hanging the exhibition - it’s my chance to flex my creative muscles and organize the art in a way that is complimentary to the body of work as a whole!
I’ve been eyeing Gina’s work from a distance for a long time and kept seeing her work on Insta through various accounts I follow like on Carrie Colbert’s account. I finally decided to reach out to Gina and was so excited when she told me she had actually visited the gallery about a year prior! A few months passed and Gina sent me two pieces, which sold so fast that I didn’t have a chance to even attempt to match them! So this time around I made sure to plan well in advance of Gina’s two newest pieces coming in and I’m so glad I did, here’s a closer look at the piece I matched:
Salt Water Taffy / Acrylic on canvas / 36 X 36 / available
