How to Get the Most From an Art Exhibition
By Otieno Odhiambo · 13 June 2026 · 1 min read
Concrete habits that change what you actually get out of an exhibition — arriving early, one real question per artist, and reading the room before the wall text.
Walking through a show once, reading the wall text, and leaving is the minimum version of visiting an exhibition. Here's what changes if you want more out of it.
Arrive before the room fills
The first thirty minutes of an opening are the only time you'll see the work without a crowd between you and it. If a show has a preview or quiet period before the official opening, that's the better visit — the work, not the room, is what you came for.
Ask one real question about process
"How did you make this" or "what changed between the first version and this one" gets further with an artist than "how much is it" — the first respects the making, the second only respects the market. Artists remember, and respond better to, the first kind of question.
Read the work before the label
Look at a piece for a full minute before checking its title or wall text — form, palette, scale, what draws your eye first. Then read the label and see whether it changes what you noticed or confirms it. That order trains your own eye instead of letting the text do all the looking for you.
Walk the whole room, including the far wall
The smaller, more affordable pieces are often hung away from the entrance. If you only see the first wall you walk past, you're seeing the show's marketing, not its full range.
Follow up afterward
If a piece stayed with you, message the gallery or artist within the week — interest fades from memory faster than it should, and a genuine follow-up is rarer, and more welcome, than most galleries expect.
— Njeri Wachira