Your inquiries answered within the hour. Your open studio turned into follow‑ups by morning.
A small crew of AI agents takes the admin off your desk: the collector replies, the follow-ups after every opening, open studio, and fair, and the applications you keep putting off. All of it in your voice, none of it sent until you say so, and the afternoons go back to the work.
Most artists work alone. You have a practice, a studio, and a career you're trying to build, usually by yourself. Some artists have an assistant a day or two a week. Very few have the kind of support a career actually needs: someone on the inbox, someone on the follow-ups after an opening or a fair, someone on the applications, someone who keeps the records and the exhibition history straight. The reason is resources, almost never talent or effort. That kind of help costs money, and for most practices the money goes into the work, the rent, and the materials, in that order, with nothing left over.
I've spent twenty years working with thousands of artists, and the hardest thing to watch is an artist doing everything right and still falling behind on everything that isn't the work. The inquiry that goes unanswered because it came in on a studio day. The open call missed by one day. The collector from the open studio, or from your gallery's booth at the fair, who never got a note. The exhibition that came and went without a press note. The CV that's always a show behind. None of it is hard. There's just too much of it, and all of it waits for the one person who should be making the work.
At some point I stopped thinking the answer was "find the money to hire someone" and started thinking there had to be a better way for artists to support themselves. That's what Second Unit is.
It isn't for every artist, and it won't be the right answer for every practice. If you already have the right people around you, you don't need this. If you don't, and you've been carrying all of it yourself, I built this for you.
A reply that comes three days late costs you the sale. The collector was serious on Saturday. By Wednesday they bought something else. And the application you didn't finish was the one that would have changed the year.
Who I am
I'm Chris Davies. I've run Fabrik Projects Gallery in Los Angeles for 16 years, founded Photo Independent, a fair built for photographers, and coached artists one on one for years. I've read thousands of applications and sat across the desk from thousands of artists, and I've seen the same thing from every side of the table: the work is ready, and the admin, the gallery communications, and the marketing are what hold it back.
I built Second Unit for my own gallery first, because I had the same problem: too much that only I could answer, and no room in the budget for another person. It worked. This is the version for artists.
What I built for you
Second Unit is a service. There's no software for you to learn. We install a small crew of AI agents in your own accounts, one job each, and train each one on how your practice works: your voice, your prices, your galleries, your rules. An inquiry desk that drafts a reply to every collector within the hour. A follow-up agent that turns an open studio, an opening, or a fair weekend into personal notes by morning. An application writer that drafts every open call, residency, grant, and fair application from your own statement and CV before the deadline gets close. Between them they give you back hours a week, the hours that used to come out of studio time, and you approve every single thing before it goes out.
A word about AI. These are tools to support a career. They answer email, keep records, and draft the paperwork. They don't make the work, and they never will. Whether AI belongs anywhere near the making of art is a separate conversation, and it isn't the one this page is having.
The name comes from film. On a set, the second unit shoots everything that doesn't need the director: the establishing shots, the inserts, the driving scenes. The director keeps the scenes that need them. Same deal here. The agents take the replies, the follow-ups, and the applications. You keep the studio, and the conversations that sell the work.
Art Basel Hong Kong. Your work travels further than you do. When your gallery sends over the names of the people who asked about it, or you come home from an open studio with a sheet full of signatures, your Follow-up agent has every one in your contacts, every visit logged, and a personal note drafted for each, ready for you to read and send.
Three jobs, one studio
Draft · not sent
ToMonica EllisonSubjectRe: the large piece from the open studio
Monica, thank you for writing, and for coming by on Saturday. The piece you asked about is still available in the large size, 54 by 41 inches. I've attached the sheet with the price and the edition details.
Attached from your inventory. Example image: Glen Wexler, Pyramid, 2024, courtesy Fabrik Projects.
If you'd like to see it again in the studio, I'm here most afternoons this week. Just say which day.
Best, Your name
Studio Inquiry Desk
Every email, website, and Instagram inquiry gets a drafted reply within the hour, in your voice, with the right image attached. It knows which prices you share, which you quote only to a named person, and which works are spoken for or with a gallery. Serious collectors and curators get flagged to you the same day.
Reads: your inbox, your inventory. Writes: a draft, a note in your contacts. Never: sends, states a price it isn't allowed to, undercuts your gallery.
Sign-in sheet, Saturday's opening
Monica Ellison monica@… · the large piece
D. Okafor loved the works on paper
Jun & Priya Castellanos
Tom Reyes send me the list
Helena Vos curator, wants images
Sunday morning, in your drafts
Monica, thank you for coming· the large piece, studio view attached
Dele, good to see you Saturday· two works on paper
Jun and Priya, thank you both· the new series, one image
Tom, the list you asked for· price list on request
Helena, the images you asked for· CV attached, no sales language
1 line unreadable, left for you
Five people read, three new contacts, five drafts, one line for a person to fix.
Studio Visit Follow-up
Photograph the sign-in sheet the morning after an open studio or an opening, or forward the names your gallery collected at the fair, and upload it. By the time you've had coffee, every name is in your contact list, every visit is logged, and every person has a personal thank-you waiting in your drafts with an image of what they looked at. The curator who asked for images gets them. Nobody who signs the sheet goes quiet.
Reads: the photo, your contacts, your inventory. Writes: contacts, visits, drafts. Never: guesses an email, sends.
Draft · due in 12 days
ForResidency application, spring sessionSectionProject statement, 300 words
For the past two years the work has moved from the single photograph toward sequences: images that only make sense beside each other, hung so the eye has to travel. The residency's print studio is the reason I'm applying. I want to make the first full set at scale, on paper, and see whether the sequence holds when it's three meters long instead of thirty centimeters on a screen.
Drafted from your statement, your CV, and the two applications you uploaded. Three things to confirm before you send: the sequence count, the print size, and which show to name in the second paragraph.
Application Writer
Upload your statement, your CV, and a couple of past applications once. Give the agent the open calls, residencies, grants, and fair applications you care about, and it drafts each one in your words before the deadline gets close, with the three things only you can confirm listed at the top. You stop missing deadlines, and you stop rewriting the same paragraph at midnight.
Reads: your statement, CV, past applications, the call. Writes: a draft per deadline, a task with the due date. Never: submits, invents a show or a review.
Want a different agent first, or the whole crew at once? Inventory and Provenance, CV, Bio and Statement, Gallery and Curator Research, and Press and Social are all on the menu. Ask on the call.
Meet the crew
You're never managing this alone. Every crew comes with its own Second Unit Lead, and the Second Unit Lead is in charge. It runs the other agents, tells you once a day what's done and what's waiting on you, and answers your questions in plain words, from "how do I change what the inquiry desk says about prices" to "what did you do while I was in the studio." You talk to one agent. It handles the rest. If you can send a text message, you can run this.
Each agent under it is set up for one job, the way you'd brief a studio assistant on day one: the instructions for that job, the rules it works inside, the skills it needs, and nothing else. Your inquiry desk knows your prices and which works your gallery handles. Your follow-up agent knows the new series. Your application writer writes in your sentences.
You pick three to start. The Second Unit Lead comes with every setup and ties them together.
Needs youMonica's reply about the large piece
ApproveNot now
Done today13 tasks · 4 agents
Daily status sent, one thing waiting on youSecond Unit Lead
Drafted 3 replies to collector inquiriesStudio Inquiry Desk
Residency statement drafted, due in 12 daysApplication Writer
Second Unit LeadAlways included, always in charge
Manages the crew for you. Runs the daily status, keeps your queue to one request at a time, and answers your questions and makes your changes so you never need us for a small tweak.
Studio Inquiry DeskPick three
Drafts a reply to every email, website, and Instagram inquiry within the hour, in your voice, following your rule on which prices may be said to whom and which works belong to your gallery.
Studio Visit Follow-upPick three
Reads the open-studio sheet, the opening's sign-in book, or the names your gallery passes along from the fair, logs every visit, and drafts a personal note per person by morning. Checks in on quiet collectors every Monday.
Application WriterPick three
Watches the open calls, residencies, grants, and fair applications you choose and drafts each application from your own statement and CV, with the due date on your task list.
Inventory and ProvenancePick three
One photo and a line per new work, and your catalog stays current: location, edition, price history, who owns it, and a certificate of authenticity drafted on request.
CV, Bio and StatementPick three
Every exhibition, fair, press mention, and sale the other agents log goes onto your CV the same day. Ask for a bio at any length and it's ready in your voice.
Gallery and Curator ResearchPick three
A researched list of galleries and curators showing work like yours, with a drafted introduction for each that you decide whether to send.
Press and SocialPick three
The post calendar for an exhibition, a fair, or a new series, a caption per work, a press note for the local listings, and replies to the DMs you forward.
Once you say yes: what you get in the first week
Nothing is left for you to figure out. This is what we set up, and when.
Day 1Installed and Running.
Your Second Unit Lead and your first agent are set up on your own accounts, interviewed on your voice, your prices, and your rules, and one real inquiry is answered before we end the call.
Day 2The Inbox Stops Waiting on the Studio.
Every new inquiry has a drafted reply sitting in your drafts within about an hour, with the right image attached. You read it between coats of paint, edit if you like, and send.
Day 3First Check-in.
We read the week's drafts together, note what you changed, and tighten the rules so the next ones need less of your hand.
Day 7Your First Number.
How many drafts went out untouched. It's the one figure we track from here, and it's the honest measure of whether this is giving you time back for the work.
Have an open studio, an opening, or a fair in week one? Photograph the sign-in sheet the next morning and the thank-you notes are drafted before you've finished your coffee.
How it works
Assessment.
A 45-minute call. We find the tasks that are eating into your practice and match them to the agent that can take them over.
Install.
Everything works from day one, and you don't set up a thing alone. We help you sign up for Grok Bot, and for Notion if you don't have it yet, both on your own accounts. Then, in one screen share, we install the agents, connect your email and calendar from your side, and run the interview that teaches them your voice, your prices, your galleries, and your rules. We walk you through the whole thing and check every piece before we hand them off to you.
Runs onGrok Bot
Two Weeks of Tuning.
We read the drafts with you every few days and tighten the agent until most go out with no edits. Then a monthly check-in, and the next agent setup when you want it.
Most artists are running within a week of the assessment.
What it costs
Built for an artist paying for it alone. One price to set the crew up, and after that you pay only when you need us, because your Second Unit Lead handles most of what comes up.
The assessment call is part of the setup, not a separate fee. You pay for your own software: about $30 a month for Grok Bot, and Notion's free plan is enough for one person. Paid to them, not to us.
Setup, once
Price
Second Unit Lead Plus Any Three Agents You choose three of the seven. The assessment call, the install, the interview, and two weeks of tuning are all included.
$1,000
The Whole Crew Second Unit Lead plus all seven, installed a week apart so each gets its tuning.
$2,500
After that: support on call No monthly fee. Your Second Unit Lead handles the day to day. When you'd rather we stepped in, we're on call by the hour.
$90 an hour
What the Same Help Costs as People
Rough US figures for hiring the equivalent, so you can see what you're getting. These are estimates.
If You Hired People$30,000 to $60,000a year
Part-time studio assistant, two days a week$1,500 to $2,500 / mo
Grant and application writer$500 to $2,000 each
Social media manager$1,000 to $2,500 / mo
Registrar for inventory and provenance$40 to $75 / hr
Studio manager, full time$50,000 to $70,000 / yr
Before taxes, before a desk, and before they've learned how you like things done.
Your Second Unit Crew$1,000once, three agents$2,500once, the whole crew
Works every day, including the day of the opening
Trained on your voice, your prices, your galleries
About $30 a month in software, paid to Grok Bot
Support on call at $90 an hour, only when you ask
Yours to keep. If we part ways, the crew stays with you
A support team for the price of one month of one assistant.
What the agents won't do
Send Without You.
The agents won't send anything, submit anything, publish anything, or change a price, an owner, or a provenance record without your yes.
Replace Anyone.
The agents won't replace your gallery, your assistant, or you. One agent, one job, with a person approving the output.
Hold Your Logins.
The agents won't hold your logins. Your accounts, your images, your collectors. If we part ways, the agents stay with you.
Do Cold Outreach.
The agents won't cold-pitch galleries or collectors in your name. They follow up with people who came to the studio and signed their name, and they draft introductions that you decide to send.
What changes
The internet changed how artists reach an audience. For the first time, you didn't need a gallery to be seen. This changes something as basic. For the first time, you can build your own support team, the kind only well-funded artists and galleries have ever had, for a fraction of what it costs to hire the same people.
What that feels like, day to day, is peace of mind. Nothing falls through the cracks. The collector who wrote on Monday has a reply before lunch. Saturday's opening is 30 thank-you notes in your drafts on Sunday morning. The names your gallery brought back from the fair are in your contacts the day they arrive. The residency application is drafted two weeks before it's due. You stop worrying about the email you missed, the appointment you forgot, the collector who went quiet, because there's a crew behind you watching all of it, and most of the work is done before you see it.
You still write the important emails. You just stop writing all of them, and the days go back to the work you love.
Art Basel Hong Kong. Somewhere in this crowd is the person who'll buy your next piece. Someone has to follow up.
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Nora, Second UnitReplies in seconds
Hi, I’m Nora. I’m here to help, just like the rest of our AI crew. Are you interested in the AI agents we build for artists? Ask me anything: what each one does, how the install works, or what it costs. If I can’t answer your question, I’d be happy to pass you to a person on our team.
Grok Bot
