Wanted: Freelance Art Agent

atos Ideas and Approach – In a Nutshell

ato is working towards a fair and transparent art market and is committed to supporting strong artistic visions. We see ourselves as a decentralized network for artists and cultural professionals who contribute to the sale, visibility, and mediation of art.

What sets us apart from traditional galleries is that we work together (rather than alone) to promote and represent artistic positions, and we cover the costs of the "digital infrastructure" for you. We share your curatorial work and the art of your represented artists, and our professional crew offers guidance and support. We also welcome ideas and conceptual approaches—going beyond the "sellable image" to develop new paths of art funding.

Your Role as a Freelance Art Agent

ato consists of a network and an online platform where you, as a freelance agent, are represented along with your artists. Art agents represent artists through the ato network. Within this network, agents work independently, organize exhibitions, and curate their artists’ online presence.

For your work in the network—managing content and maintaining communication between your artist(s) and ato—the minimum share for agents is a 20% sales commission. The art agent receive up to 40% for exhibition projects and campaigns initiated by them. Unlike traditional galleries, the artists receive 70% (excluding exhibition sales), while 10% goes to the ato platform.

You can read more about our vision for a fair and transparent art market here:

Our vision

To support a successful collaboration, we offer a range of structures and tools that make working with your artists significantly easier.

As a freelance art agent, your core responsibilities include the following:

You serve as the primary contact, networker, and representative for your artist(s).
As an agent, you are responsible for creating and managing up-to-date content on the ato website, and you support your artist(s) with questions, ideas, and feedback. You stay informed about their development, new works, and concepts. This requires regular communication—because you are the bridge between the artist and ato.
You keep ato informed about upcoming exhibitions or events so they can be shared within the network.
Optionally, you can also organize exhibitions yourself as part of your work as an art agent.
ato is here to support you—whether it’s deciding which artworks to add to the platform, organizing exhibitions, developing artistic collaborations, or applying for funding.
We want to support our agents in the best possible way. For example, we are planning coaching sessions and opportunities to connect and collaborate with other art agents in the network.
You can also contribute your professional skills to the ato agency model and potentially receive external job opportunities through the platform.

Do you, as an art agent, have an idea for an exhibition or a special project? We’d be happy to support you in securing funding and defining the terms for collaboration.

Interested? We will announce the next application deadline shortly!

We look forward to welcoming you into our network and reshaping the art world—together.

Our Application Process

Every six months, an external panel reviews all applications and decides who will be invited to join our network. This panel is composed of a diverse and highly qualified group of cultural professionals—curators, artists, scholars in the arts and humanities, journalists, and others. Their expertise ensures that we can continue to uphold the high standards of our platform. At the same time, this process introduces a more democratic structure to our selection process, as the decisions are no longer made by us alone.

The current application round has ended – find out here when the next one will start!

Our committee

Nahom Mehret

Cultural producer

Norina Quinte

Art agent,

Co-founder of ato

The picture shows a portrait of Meheş Ungan.

Mehveş Ungan

Curator

Sophia Pompéry

Artist

Gülcan Nitsch

Graduate biologist,

CEO Yeşil Çember - ökologisch interkulturell gGmbH

The picture shows a portrait of Sarah Hübscher.

Dr. Sarah Hübscher

Cultural scientist

Wolfgang Ullrich

Art scientist

The picture shows a portrait of Felicitas Klein and Ekkehard Kneer.

Felicitas Klein & Ekkehard Kneer

Conservators

Handan Kaymak

Diversity Advisor

Hilka Dirks

Editorial Director Crisp & Critic

Dr. Claudia Peppel

advisor

Hannah Klein

Managing director of ato,

Co-founder of ato

G. Kühnhardt Alvarez

Artist

The picture shows a portrait of Susanne Rockweiler.

Dr. Susanne Rockweiler

Curator, CEO

ato asks questions

and the committee responds

Additional information for art agents

If you apply to ato as an art agent, it would be helpful if you submit at least two artistic positions that you can imagine representing through ato. Ideally, these should be artists with whom you already have experience in working together and have already discussed a possible representation at ato.

Additional information for artists

You can apply as an artist with us. There are two possible ways to do so: Either your art agent applies to ato at the same time as you, or an agent who is already part of ato proposes to represent you. In both cases, the agent must submit a written statement explaining why they recommend you. This statement will be considered as part of the application process. If you have any questions or need assistance, we are happy to help.