1) Move to NYC, get a job working for a near blue-chip artist. Look for one with the fewest assistants. Accept $20 an hour.
2) Go to art openings, sign your name in every gallery guest book and attend every after-party.
3) Have a studio, and get your friends, employer and his gallery contacts to visit
4) Start showing your work, or repeat steps 2 and 3 until someone shows your work.
5) The ball is now, rolling. To add some momentum do the following:
- Curate a summer show at a gallery somewhere
- Upgrade your studio to someplace people like to visit. (Dark wood floors, on the waterfront in Red Hook, Brooklyn perhaps) Throw good parties.
- Grow a lumberjack beard. Or, only shop at comme des garcons. Or thrift-store jeans and a white T, for all occasions.
6) Make friends with writers and critics. (Their needs are human, just like yours)
7) Get shown, written about, and finally get collected.
8) Now...this is the part where most artists discover how life as a successful artist is actually appalling. You'll need to socialize with and be popular among some very wealthy, but ultimately superficial people who treat you and your art as a certificate of their cultural sophistication.
9) If you have made it this far, and still want to continue, you probably have what is takes to be a successful modern artist whose work will appear at auction in a few years. Just keep in mind -- you'll receive none of those auction proceeds, and there's no promise you'll every go to auction again.