An art gallery is basically a room or series of rooms where works of art are exhibited. They are either run by people interested in selling art or by artists selling art. There are different levels of art galleries. Some cater to the average person and may offer some original art, some prints of art and framing. There are co-op galleries that are run to support unknown artists. These are often run by fellow artists. There are also galleries that specialize in the top tier artists in the world and cater to collectors, exclusively offering viewings by appointment only. There are galleries at varying stages between these that cater to specific genres and carry a limited type of artist. Some galleries focus on the status of the artist offering various types of art when determining who they will exhibit while others focus on the style of art and only carry similar artists that fit into that context.
Due to the recent downturn in the economy luxury boutiques have had to close their doors. In this category many of the exclusive galleries have closed their brick & mortar (physical location) either completely or to the general public and turned to private business exchanges. Some still maintain an online presence while others have become more like brokers arranging special viewings of select works that a collector has expressed interest in.
As a potential artist you want to focus on the fundamentals and avoid forming rigid ideas of what you are as an artist. Remain open and flexible. You want to learn and absorb and expose yourself to ideas and experiment. Later on after you have taken advantage of the learning stage without prematurely thinking you are already "The Artist" only then should you venture into self-expression as the artist. Of course along the way you will express yourself but it will always be within the limited confines of a project and not as the fully trained artist ready for the world, so to speak.
During your learning stages participate in competitions and exhibitions and begin building a history. This history of art activity serves as proof you are a serious artist, you take your art career seriously and are not a dabbler. This history will serve you when you begin to show work in galleries. It will illustrate you are going someplace in life. You are capable of continually producing work. These things matter to collectors. Collectors are frequently investors and not fans of art at all. Often they think with their logical mind rather than their heart. They do not only buy art because they may like it. They may be willing to buy something they do not like aesthetically and only are attracted to it as a potential investment or as trophy for the mantle. The famous name is more important to some people than that art itself.
Generally this begins with people seeing a mature style and momentum and later on as you are able to upgrade to better galleries you will attract wealthier people with money to play with. This level is where more of the vanity buyers are. The vanity buyers purchase art because it makes them look better in some way. To get there typically takes a lot of work and luck. As you work your way up the ladder, make intelligent choices maintaining the highest level of integrity. What you do now effects what is available to you later. Do not do something if it is the equivalent to a scar on your history. Leave it off the bio if you have to do something and be wise to things that can make a lasting impression good and bad.
Ultimately you can only paint so many paintings in a lifetime so the goal is to do the best work for the most amount of money.
On the downside of the gallery topic is the fact that they take half of the sale as commission. Some do very little except display a few pieces of your art. Others stand behind the artist and actively market them. You have to be worth it to them. They do not even take you on otherwise. Yet being skilled and talented in one of the high-end galleries does not mean the gallery will do more than display a couple of your paintings. You will always need to be an assertive participant in the relationship. You will probably have to move around to various galleries before finding one that is suitable. So you have a lot of preparing for the best situations before they become available to you.
Currently the gallery still has a hold on the door to fine art careers. The internet has opened up a few opportunities to a very small percentage of people. Duane Keiser is an example of an artist that pioneered the Painting A Day Blog concept and is the most successful benefactor. He originally painted one painting each day for a year and immediately made it available for sale on eBay. He continues to innovate.
One of the most impressive demonstrations of innovation he did was to film a painting of an ice cream cone as it melted. The painting started with a fresh ice cream cone. He quickly developed a realistic representation then as it melted in various stages along the way he was able to maintain a level of finish by continuing to paint and repaint over areas until it completely melted. The video was placed on a DVD and auctioned off with the final painting on eBay. When viewing the DVD you could pause the movie at several intervals and because the painting-in-progress was kept at such a level of finish he could have quit several times and the painting would have looked like it was meant to be done at that time. It did not look like it was a painting-in-progress. This is an extremely difficult thing to pull off and requires great skill, efficiency and speed.
Here it is on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iulpr-Lpouk
Most recently he has produced an application for the iPhone that is for all of his collectors. He was and remains a traditional gallery-represented artist as well though. His success has not been entirely on the internet.
http://www.duanekeiser.com
A Painting A Day Blog
http://duanekeiser.blogspot.com/
There are online stores like etsy that act as a storefront for direct sales of your artwork. Some of these websites offer the artist the ability to offer their images on T-Shirts, stationary, coffee mugs, posters and so on. All of the burden of marketing rests on the artist though. You can be a needle in a haystack, buried in a website among so many other artists.
In the case of Duane Keiser, because he was known in his community showing in galleries as well as an art teacher at the local university, a newspaper picked up his story and boosted public awareness of him. There are only a handful of similar cases with other artists. A boatload of people jumped on the bandwagon and have not come close to making a significant impact in the world of art.
http://www.etsy.com/
I know of one artist who is part of the cream of the crop. He has made some unconventional moves like hiring an agent. This is what everyone dreams of. Having a rep doing the footwork while you focus on painting. He said that in the short time he has had an agent this person has done more for him than has been done in all of the years he has been relying on his galleries. But he is one of the most educated, intelligent, talented and inspired artists alive today. Agents worth their fee are not interested in anything they can't make a lot of money from.
The physical gallery model will probably persist as it is but there will be adjustments on the high end that will be incorporated everywhere they can work if they prove successful.
Also, if you want to be a fine artist showing work in galleries and sought after by collectors, consider attending an art atelier or true school of design like SVA in New York or The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California instead of a university. In an atelier you will receive focused training that will prepare you for this career. The university system produces art graduates that can barely draw and who do not understand many basic concepts in art. The problem is the result of the Modern Art movements and there is too much of a focus on self-expression absent of developed skill and knowledge. When you have skill and knowledge you are in a position to make a choice of what you want to do and where you want to go. That leads to a far more enriching life experience than making choices based on what you cannot do because you lack the skill and knowledge. What this means is you can produce the art in your mind and don't have to settle for adopting a style to disguise a lack of skill.
Atelier Method:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atelier_Method
Art Center College:
http://www.artcenter.edu/
School of Visual Art:
http://www.sva.edu/
Angel Academy of Art:
http://www.angelartschool.com/
The Grand Central Academy:
http://grandcentralacademy.classicist.org/
The Waichulis Studio
http://www.thewaichulisstudio.net/
Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art
http://www.laafa.org/