InScope's Hayley Smith on What Galleries Keep Getting Wrong

For decades, gallery representation was seen as a major sign that an artist had made it. Galleries opened doors to collectors, institutions and curators, while artists depended on them to build visibility, establish a market and grow their careers. That dynamic is starting to shift.

Artists can now build global audiences, sell work directly, stage their own shows and create communities without waiting for traditional gatekeepers. But for Hayley River Smith, director of InScope (formerly Scope Art Show), that does not mean galleries are losing their relevance. It means the relationship between artists and galleries has to change.

For the latest edition of Hypeart’s ‘State of Art,’ Smith talks about what meaningful representation looks like in 2026, whether the traditional 50/50 split still holds up and why belief, trust and real investment in an artist may matter more than representation alone.

Courtesy Of Hayley River Smith And Inscope

“What people are craving now is real connection beyond what is transactional.”

Do artists still need galleries? Why or why not?

For me the question isn’t whether artists need galleries anymore rather what we want that relationship to be. We have spent a long time painstakingly applauding what is predictable. We know what a gallery is supposed to do, what an artist is supposed to do, what a fair is supposed to look like, and what success is supposed to look like. We have reached a point where we’re looking at that model grimacing while we all continue to participate in the sameness of it all.

Artists have more ways to build audiences and sell work directly than ever before, but that doesn’t mean the relationships are less important. The opposite is true.

What people are craving now is real connection beyond what is transactional. The best gallery relationship can offer exactly that: someone who knows the artist, understands the work, takes a risk on it, and is invested in where that practice could go rather than simply what can be sold this season. Artists still need people who believe in their work and are willing to build something with them. Sometimes that’s a gallery. Sometimes it isn’t.

What can a gallery provide an artist today that they can’t easily build for themselves?

Relationships and belief are the two biggest things. An artist can build an audience online, sell directly, create their own exhibitions, and communicate with collectors without traditional intermediaries. However building deep, lasting relationships across collectors, museums, curators, institutions and other artists takes time.

With galleries there is value in having someone else in your corner. Someone who is willing to say, “I believe this is important,” before the market has necessarily confirmed it. And that is very different from simply providing access to buyers.

Has social media changed the balance of power between artists and galleries?

Social media has given a significant amount of power back to artists, but equally it has provided galleries more creative tools to promote artists than ever before. Artists have reclaimed an enormous amount of control over how they present themselves, tell their own stories and reach audiences. Increasingly, collectors are discovering artists directly through social media and then looking to galleries and fairs to further understand, contextualize or vet the work. That is a significant shift from a model where galleries were often the primary gateway between an artist and their audience.

But social media has also exposed something interesting: access isn’t the same as connection. You can have millions of people looking at your work and still not have a meaningful relationship with the person who collects it.

We’re living through a moment where everyone has more access, but I we’re simultaneously realizing how valuable genuine human relationships and trust are. Social media can create discovery, but it doesn’t replace trusted relationships, advocacy and long-term investment required to build a sustainable career.

This doesn’t make galleries irrelevant. It makes their role more accountable. If an artist can build visibility and access independently, then galleries have to be clearer about what they uniquely bring to the relationship and how they are investing in the artist beyond simply benefiting from the audience they have already built.

Courtesy Of Hayley River Smith And Inscope

“It’s less about fitting artists into an existing structure and more about asking what structure can best support the artist and their practice.”

Can an artist build a serious, lasting career outside of the traditional gallery system?

Yes. There are more pathways than there have ever been. But the takeaway shouldn’t be that we no longer need institutions or galleries. The takeaway is that those spaces are no longer the only way in.

A lot of things that look like isolated crises—the gallery model, direct sales, social media and many more—are connected. They are signs that the way people want to participate in the art world is evolving and this is great. We need to stop pretending that this is the art industry of 2005. As an industry filled with creatives, we all need to think more creatively about the business and distribution model of 2026 and beyond.

The opportunity is to build new structures around that reality rather than simply trying to preserve the old ones. I genuinely enjoy seeing how artists are building their own pathways in this ever-evolving landscape. There is a lot we can learn from that. The way we work with artists should evolve in the same way. It’s less about fitting artists into an existing structure and more about asking what structure can best support the artist and their practice.

What does gallery representation still signal to collectors, museums and institutions?

It can signal that there is a professional structure around an artist’s practice, but that signal is becoming less definitive.

Representation used to be one of the clearest markers of legitimacy. Today, there are many ways for an artist to demonstrate seriousness: institutional exhibitions, residencies, independent projects, communities they’ve built, collectors they’ve developed, collaborations, and the work itself.
Ultimately, the question is shifting from “Who represents this artist?” to “Who believes in this artist, and why?”

If artists can sell directly to collectors, what makes giving a gallery 50% worthwhile?

If an artist is giving up 50%, there needs to be a meaningful exchange of value. That can be relationships, advocacy, exhibitions, institutional placement, production, logistics, market development and, importantly, long-term investment.

The 50/50 model cannot continue in the way it exists today. Artists have more power than ever through social media, direct access to audiences and collectors, and the communities they are building around their own practices. They are also increasingly investing in themselves.
If the relationship is purely transactional, 50% feels increasingly difficult to justify. If an artist is bringing the audience, the community, the cultural relevance and a significant amount of investment in their own practice, then a gallery has to be clear about what it is bringing in return.

But there is another kind of value that is harder to quantify: being part of something with someone. If the relationship is genuinely collaborative and the gallery is helping build something that neither party could build as well alone, the equation changes. It takes working with the right people to make that split worth it.

Artists are inherently investing in their work and in building their own careers. The galleries have to invest as well. We’re moving toward a moment where artists will be much more willing to ask whether the traditional split actually reflects the value being created on both sides—and that’s a conversation the industry should be having and one that we will certainly be having at InScope this year.

Courtesy Of Hayley River Smith And Inscope

“Are we creating new opportunities, introducing new people, taking risks, and actually expanding the artist’s world?”

Are galleries still built to nurture artists long term, or has the relationship become more transactional?

There are certainly transactional relationships, but that is not the whole picture. The growing discomfort with transactional relationships is part of what is driving change. A transactional relationship can get you a sale. It can’t necessarily build you a career.

We also need to be honest about the fact that galleries sometimes rely heavily on the communities and networks that artists have already built without making the same level of investment back into those artists. An artist brings their collectors, their peers, their cultural credibility, their audience and suddenly that community becomes part of the gallery’s business model. But are we investing in that community in return? Are we creating new opportunities, introducing new people, taking risks, and actually expanding the artist’s world?

That’s where the relationship can become transactional very quickly. People are looking for more meaningful relationships across the art world because relying solely on transactions doesn’t create longevity. There is a desire for something with a little more risk, curiosity and humanity.
Galleries have an enormous opportunity here. Those that understand that an artist’s community isn’t simply a resource to be tapped, but something to be genuinely invested in, will be the ones that build lasting relationships.

If you were an emerging artist today, would gallery representation still be one of your main goals?

I’d make building a meaningful practice and community the goal, and then find the people—whether that’s a gallery, curator, collector, institution or other artists—who genuinely want to build alongside me.

Emerging artists today have an incredible advantage. They don’t have to wait for permission to begin. And that’s the biggest change we’re seeing. The question is no longer simply “How do I get into the system?” It’s becoming “What kind of system do I actually want to participate in?”