To state the obvious, there are basically two kinds of artists' shows: solo and group. A solo show is a big deal. Exhibiting the work of one artist, a solo show focuses on the most current work the artist has produced. A special kind of solo show is the retrospective, showing many years and periods of the artist's career. Typically, an artist has a solo show every two to five years. It's a huge amount of work and the acid test of artistic success. A subset of solo shows is the duo show, where two artists share gallery space, hopefully because their work complements each other's.
Group shows include invitational, non juried and juried shows. Invitational shows are what they sound like - an artist is invited to show work in a particular show. Juried shows are exhibitions that are judged by jurors. Artists submit their work and the jurors decide which pieces to include in the exhibition. If the show includes awards, the jurors decide what piece gets which award, usually after the show is hung but before the opening. Non juried shows are usually first come, first serve - when the show is full, they accept no more entries.
All of these shows can be useful. With the many online listings of hundreds of calls for entry, it can be hard to decide which exhibitions to enter. An approach that helps me is to think of each work I want to exhibit, not in terms of "Oh, I hope this gets into the Blah Blah Blah Show," but, "What's the best exhibition for this?" or "Where's the best place for this?" I'm convinced that there's a venue for everything I want to exhibit, I just have to find it.
Online shows are a new type of exhibition that haven't been around very long. It's still too early to tell what place they'll hold in the art world in the long run. Like everything else, there are good ones and bad ones. Don't dismiss all of them because of the bad ones. For a sculptor, online shows can be very beneficial because shipping and handling, which can be prohibitively expensive for sculpture, are eliminated. An online audience can be anywhere in the world, as Google Analytics demonstrates on a daily basis, so an online show can reach new audiences, broaden your following and enlarge your group of viewers.
Awards are an integral part of exhibiting and artists need to win them. The jurors have their own tastes and preferences, often incomprehensible. It's helpful to look at past exhibition catalogs and see what sorts of things were included in the show and what won awards. If you hate everything that won awards, stay away from that show. Also, check out the jurors. There's no point subjecting yourself to a hostile juror. If you dislike the work of a juror, chances are quite high that the juror won't like yours, either.
It's really important not to take any of this personally. Try to see the humor of getting what I think of "The Rejection du Jour". You have to have thick enough skin for none of this to upset you; winning, not winning, being accepted, being rejected - it's all in a day's work. Every artist, at whatever level, wants to be working at a higher level, showing more, winning more awards, getting better press coverage, selling more. There's always going to be somebody with a glitzier portfolio and resumé than yours.
It's never too late to become the person you were meant to be.
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