Virginia Broersma Interview with Gan Uyeda, Artist Agent with 291 Agency
June 2025

Virginia Broersma: What is an artist agent?

Gan Uyeda:  An agent works with artists through a long-term representation relationship. We're long-term strategists. We are networkers. We go into an artist's studio when we start working together and do a deep analysis of their CVs, talk to them extensively about big picture goals, big picture dreams. Then we build out a big picture plan for achieving all of those things.

 Agents differ from how a gallery might operate by taking a much wider view of the artist's place in the culture. So we're looking at:

  • Brand collaborations

  • Fashion

  • Product deals

  • Book deals

  • Public art

The artists' goals can also be traditional art world markers of success:

  • Gallery shows

  • Prizes

  • Obtaining different kinds of gallery representation

  • Museum Shows

With the system as it has been set up, the gallerist has been the key strategist for the artist. But many galleries are operating at a speed that doesn't allow for this big picture kind of perspective and so there's a gap that's opened up between what an artist really needs in order to make these strategic planning decisions and what a gallery is able to deliver to them. 

It's super, super fundamental to put out there that we, as artist agents, do not replace galleries. Galleries are extremely important. They are a major source of support and guidance for an artist. Agents are able to complement galleries and add other perspectives to the mix.

 

VB: It seems like there is more familiarity with Artist Agencies on the East Coast, but not as much on the West Coast. Is it a large field?

GU: They're popping up. The way that they're popping up shows that there's a structural gap that's opening between what galleries offer and what artists need. This model is one solution to that gap.

 It's important to note  that it is a historical model. In the mid-century, many major artists had agents who would correspond on their behalf. Twombly had an agent;  Man Ray famously had an agent.

 I think as the Castelli/Sonnabend 50-50 representation model grew and as the art world and especially the art market grew in the 80s, 90s, and aughts, the agent model went away because the gallery became the prime operator.

 Now we're seeing  the artist's cultural standing is changing. The artist's ability to take part in pop culture, to take part in commercial culture, has totally changed.   All of those factors, I think, are contributing to the shift here.

 

VB: What types of artists do agencies work with? What makes an artist well-suited for this type of relationship?

GU: There are lots of different kinds of artists in the agency.      

There could be an artist who is in their 70s. They've had their MoMA retrospective. Adding another three or four museum shows and solo exhibitions to their CV are not super high priorities to them. But maybe they want to diversify their income. Maybe they want legacy planning. So they want creative thinking about their archives and their relationships to universities and museums.

Or you can have an artist who's just coming up, has a lot of heat and is getting a lot of offers from different galleries. They might be asking. "How do you make decisions? Who do you go with? And then how do you leverage a lot of that cultural power?"

Most of our artists have major gallery representation—usually two, three or four galleries internationally that they're already working with. Not all—some are a bit more emerging—but it's not really a model that's well suited to emerging artists.

 

VB: Do artists approach the agency? Do you ever reach out to artists and solicit your services?

GU: Yeah. I mean, always. Especially since I'm opening the office in Los Angeles, I've been approaching different artists, and a lot of that is just information sharing about who we are and what we're doing.

Artists definitely approach us. We talk with everybody to see if it's a good fit.

                 

VB: How do artists pay you? I've heard that some agents get paid on commission. For example, if they secure a museum show, they get a piece of the honorarium. Is that how it works?

GU: Our agency fee is a percentage fee of the artist's      revenue. That keeps us fully aligned with everything that the artist is doing.

 

VB: It seems like it takes a team effort to work with the artists. It looks like your agents are coming from the roles of working in a gallery, or as a curator or art advisor. I'm assuming it's important for them to bring that knowledge of the art world. Is that right?

GU: It's really fundamental. To me, the force and the success of the agency has to do with a critical mass of a network. Each artist in the agency has one, two, maybe three primary agents that are working with them and everyone in the agency is putting effort toward all of the artists.

The primary agent of each artist leads the charge on the strategy.  For example, an artist needs to show more in Asia. Where would be best? Maybe it's Seoul. Then the primary agent asks the team who has the best contacts in Seoul? Who has the best relationships that we can pitch an exhibition or a representation idea to? And then we work through those channels.

 Those networks flow differently for different projects. That's why it's important to have an amazing depth of talent with our agents. So much of our success comes back to being able to access huge parts of the art world.

 

VB: One of the limitations of mentorship for artists is that it's too passive. It's a model that gives artists tools and knowledge but then it's up to      the artist to implement them. I'm really interested in sponsorship models that differ by saying, "I'm going to connect you with my network. I'm going to make connections on your behalf. I'm going to bring opportunities to you." That sounds like what an agency does.

GU: Yeah, for sure. A lot of what I do is just talking to people—really open-endedly talking to a lot of curators, to people that run art fairs, to advisors, to writers. I go into those conversations not having anything specific in mind. I'm not going to      pitch something that I don't think is going to work, but rather I listen to what they're doing, what shows they're working on, and what their museum is prioritizing over the next five years.

My work is really focused on matchmaking. It's a matter of being strategic and making sure that what I'm bringing to the table is exciting for the other person and the artist.

 

VB: I was curious if you have any hesitation around using your personal network for your work. Do you ever feel conflicted about using it on behalf of your artist clients?

GU: It's so funny. The fact that I've never even thought about that tells me that the answer is no. This world that we move through— the overlapping of the social and the professional—is so deep.

 I'm always asking: Does this make sense? Does this artist make sense in the context of this curator’s or gallerist’s program? That's a really fundamental question for me in how I'm putting things together. A lot of times, the answer is no. So restraint is, I would say, a big part of it too. For the long term, that's how you build success.