Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gladys Bortot. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Gladys thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I am a person who takes risks, I do not like staying in my comfort zone. The first one I took on a professional level was leaving my job at the advertising agency, a career I studied, to work in my father´s art gallery, that’s when I realised that it was something that I really liked.
When my father passed away, I took on the challenge of taking over the business, that was a process of renewal and change to do it in my style and with my stamp.
I like to consider myself as a person who always looks forward, so I opened a new place in Panama, of course facing the challenges of starting in a new market.
I have more than 30 years of experience as a gallery owner, working hand in hand with plastic artists, whom I represent and guide in their process.

Gladys, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For some time now, I have been complementing my work as a gallery owner with that of consulting artists, since I noticed the difficulties they face. They are usually reserved people, very involved in their creative processes and sometimes it is difficult for them to show their work, set the right price for a work, establish work strategies and most of the time, gallery owners or promoters are not open or receptive to talk with them, to show them the way forward, so they usually have a lot of doubts when it comes to managing themselves.
I love interacting with people, and advising them on the particular kind of work that makes them happy. In the case of artists, it is the same. It’s not just about a business relationship, I like to build strong ties with them, based on respect for each other’s work and communication. That is why, a couple of years ago, I formally decided to become a consultant for artists.
I give them the tools to empower themselves with their work, we evaluate the different series that they could be working on to determine the one with the greatest potential, according to my vision as a gallery owner, of course always respecting the creative process of the artist.
I provide guidelines and interesting data to take advantage of his creativity and learn to live from his talent.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When we were locked up by the pandemic, I had just moved, the family due to different circumstances was separated in different countries and instead of being a heartbreaking story, it was a great learning experience for me, it was a moment of reflection, of reinvention, of rethinking life, to stop everything and remove the autopilot in which we live.
I took advantage of the time to do training courses, to rethink my business and establish contact networks in other countries, which would later allow me to work online with these people.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The pandemic was a break in the way things were being done, it showed us that globalization is a reality, and that there are no borders. It also transformed a lot of what we did. Some things for the better and others not that much, it depends on how you look at it.
It has been the turn of many of us to rethink ourselves, we must discard many limiting beliefs and empower ourselves, believe in our ability, not fall for social pressure and criticism from others.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @artebortot
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gladys-bortot-de-luaces-32081538/

Image Credits
José Gregorio León @photogonko