I graduated as an artist at the Fine Arts Academy in Venice, Italy. It was a great experience, specially for someone coming all the way from Colombia, South America. When I graduated little did I know on how to act and work in the real world, the actual art world.

After working for some years as an artist, after a few exhibits, I ended up working for a gallery. At the beginning I was very reluctant to work for a gallery as I thought working for the other side of the coin would’ve been rather paradoxical to being an artist, but I decided to give it a shot nonetheless.

After a year I had gain some experience on how to sell artwork and I ended up loving it, as for me it was the perfect way to promote art, stay within my field and get to know people. After two years however, I felt it was creating an internal conflict.

I still have the heart of an artist. I understand how much an artist puts of his soul into his artwork and how each comes with a story that is then fed by the eye of the observer. Yet it was my experinece that artists are seldom given the propoer tools to deal with the art market. That's when I decided to become a cultural instigator: seeking for opportunites that will expand an artist exposure and that will allow me to share my market experience with them hoping to fill the usual void found in this area .

 

Ximena Zuniga