I am a visual artist (painter) located on St. Maarten a small island
in the Caribbean. My biggest challenge is how to get my art out of
this island in to world cities. Now, I have concluded after many
attempts to contact art galleries/dealers etc that it is futile to do
so. My second conclusion is that in order to get into the 'inner
circle' you need to have the contacts, and this would be the only
rule. It is not about the work, nor the artist. So my question would
be:

Who who is reading this can genuinely refer me to one of his contacts
on first name basis to pitch my art successfully? Go take a look at my
art at http://www.dimitrios-art.com should it help in pitching. Do you
have a contact who is a gallerist/dealer maybe a prominent collector?

Wow, very intense, I like your art very much!

Looks inspired by, but different from, Roy Lichtenstein.

dimitrios,

here is a reductive but accurate sketch of how one enters an "art world".

it is not so much a matter of just getting a referal in the sense of a
"sales lead" or a referal for a good plumber. If you want to join an
art community (artworldX) say, the art world of new york, you need to
BE in new york city, AND be a member of the art community here. AND,
you must (typically) be then "mentored in" to a smaller sub-community
of artists of which some are connected with certain galleries. This is
a slow, organic process. THEN, perhaps, teh dealer or gallerist would
see your work, or hear about your work via another artist, and they
may ask to see your work at a studio visit, and maybe, you might be
invited into a group show. based on responses to your work in the
group show (art press, sales, chatter among artists of interest to the
gallerist) you might be offered a solo show. If THIS show goes well
(same criteria as above) you might join the gallery's "stable".

The answer then is that you need to really join a community of artists
and take it from there.
JS