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

Alright, Sophocles thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

The craziest and greatest story that happened to me relating to my business was that before my business was founded, I met my business partner and wife Thais, at the first gallery show I had ever curated at One Art Space gallery in TriBeCa NYC.

She came all the way from Brazil to be in the show which was really cool.

I loved her artwork when she applied for the show (Septemberfest) and when I met her at drop off the day before the show I was stunned at how beautiful she was.

She was very shy at the drop off and as she was about to leave the gallery she kissed me on the cheek (which is a custom in Brazil) and at the show she was shy because of this because I wasn’t expecting it because in the U.S. we don’t usually do that. She had the most gorgeous smile and she bought a copy of my book Subway Stories.

The kiss gave me the confidence to ask her out and we hit it off immediately. I felt lucky to have met such a special woman, she ended up staying in New York for several months and we were spending time together pretty much everyday.

A year later we got married and started Start Shows a company that creates art shows for artists around the world in New York City galleries.

Together we have helped over 700 artists exhibit their art in over 20 art shows and many of these artists have sold 1 or many pieces of art in the shows in several venues in New York City.

Before I met Thais I as curating art shows with other partners but once we joined forces as a team, we have curated super high quality shows that we’re taken to a much higher level than before we were a team.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Sophocles Plokamakis. I’m an artpreneur and art renaissance man who wears many hats in the art world, I am a manga artist, fine art curator, business owner (My wife and I own a business called start shows which creates art events for artists around the world) , Im an art teacher having taught privately as well as in afterschool art programs in schools and in creative centers around NYC.

I got started in curating art shows as the vice president of the Greek Artists Guild in Astoria, Queens , NYC. The shows I did at the Stathakion Cultural Center were with a group of Greek Artists on a much smaller scale than the shows I have curated since 2018 in TriBeCa, Manhattan but they taught me a lot and were a good start in the art world.

After exhibiting and helping organize several of those shows, I decided that I needed a real gallery space where I could organize the shows that I envisioned, which included being able to hang art on the walls not just having tables and leaning art against the wall.

I went to the Jack Kirby art exhibition at One Art Space gallery in TriBeCa as I wanted to explore the art of the king of American comics (co creator and illustrator of many popular marvel comics characters like The X-Men, fantastic four and many others) I fell in love with the gallery and luckily as if by fate, I met the gallery curator Diego in the last 30 min of that days show. I told him my idea of curating group shows in a gallery setting and he said, you can curate your show here. That’s the day that the course of NYC art history changed forever as many emerging artists have had the opportunity to easily show and sell their art in shows that I have curated with the help of Thais and Start Shows.

On top of organizing shows for artists we provide marketing services for our clients and do IG lives for artists to teach them how to use great presentation of artwork, selling tips, marketing tips and give artists the opportunity to ask questions.

Thais and I help artists have a great START in the Art world and solve problems for them like finding an audience for their art as well as bringing collectors to the shows, helping them learn how to better present their art and package it, teach them how to price their art and prints, repost their content on IG when they tag us to our @startshows page which currently has 34.5 K followers to help them find a digital audience as well, on top of that we are also collectors and have supported many of the artists in our shows by purchasing originals and prints to form a nice collection and mementos from all the shows we have organized.

Soon we will be adding even more services that we will offer to our clients to our business and are always looking for ways to expand our business and innovate ways to better serve the creatives that we help to have great Starts in the art world!

I think what sets Thais and I apart from most companies or people who organize art events is our level or care for every detail, such as printing professional looking labels for each art piece in the shows, having members in our team like Klay, Carlos, Rosa, Jaime, David, Ian and ivilasio who help us hang the art and have lots of experience in doing so the compositions and arrangement of the art on the walls is a form of art too! Thais creates beautiful digital promotional material for the shows with her graphic design skills, she makes amazing custom flyers for each artist, we have a group chat for each show that stays open ongoing even after the show is over, where artists can ask questions to help prepare for the exhibitions, and can share opportunities with each other and also share other show openings with their newly found #artfam, the ig group chats are a powerful resource and many artists that have done shows with us have used them to spread the world about their current shows and projects.

Another big factor that sets us apart from other art shows is the number of total sales that artists have had of their art in the shows we have curated. Not just of prints, but if higher ticket items like large medium and small size original art work some pieces have sold in the thousands! We had one show in January 2023 called New You here there were 176 total sales off the wall and off of tables and the artists earned $15,000+ and kept 100% of the money they earned from their sales.

We’re also very proud of how much time and effort we put Into each show, which is usually a 2-4 month project between the call for artists, marketing and promotional stage and the show itself.

I am pleased to say that I think of all the artists I have worked with as #artfam and whenever I can I go to support them at other shows by other curators.

Finally it’s an honor and pleasure to be in the position to be able to help artists achieve their dreams and it’s been a dream come true being able to connect with so many talented and amazing creatives :)

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what helped us build the reputation we have within our market is that not only are we curators / event organizers, but we are also artists ourselves who have also exhibited in other curators shows and we have seen ourselves what we liked and didn’t like about those shows, the frustrations, fears that we had as artists in those shows and then we made our own shows be the best of what we experienced and added our own twists and ideas to it too.

Also we treat our art shows very seriously and I’ve heard from artists that have exhibited with us that they feel the love and care we have for them and the shows we put together. We care about them because we feel like we are one of them!

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Yes, my favorite book is Make More Money Selling your Art by Eric Rhoads. This book has helped me tremendously in our business and I recommend buying it to our clients all the time. It’s a great book for help with marketing art and it has helped me market the shows we produce and promote them like crazy,

Another book is Sell Like Crazy by Sabri Suby that is great for copy writing (written digital marketing)

The final book I’ll mention is You Owe You by Eric Thomas PHD which inspired the name of the Art Exhibition I mentioned earlier (New You) it’s about realizing your value and giving the most you have to give to yourself your family and the world because you truly owe yourself to do so!

Contact Info:

• Website: Startshowsnyc.com
• Instagram: Startshows
• Facebook: Facebook.com/startshows
• Tiktok: @startshows
• Other: My personal art Instagram is @farmboystory which mostly showcases pages of my manga FarmBoy but also has other drawing and portraits I’ve created around the world and in the Subway!

Image Credits
Victor (The V path) Otero Larry Leventhal