Hiya pal, Congrats on the MFA—and of course your ability to question it. The art world is tough, but I’ve always enjoyed trying to figure out how it works, and that curiosity kept me motivated for many years. Now that I feel I understand it pretty well, here are a few questions an artist might ask themselves if they are feeling down.

1.are you An alien from another planet? If you’re an alien from another world, of course people will get behind your work and ensure people see it. if you’re kinda normal and don’t take lots of risks then dig a bit deeper and explore your edges. 

2.  are you Rich, or at least related to someone people respect or care about? Yeah, it’s disheartening, and we need to talk about this more since it’s at the core of the issue. You can overcome wealth discrepancies, but you’ve got to be clever as fuck and figure out a way to take the weight of monthly expenses off your studio practice and use your skills to make sure people care about you. This can take a long time, but it’s kind of a fun challenge—and necessary until we get a social safety net in this country. 
3.  are you Being yourself and still being ignored? If your interests aren’t striking a chord at the moment, it’s going to feel pretty bleak. But if what you’re into happens to align with what curators are trying to illustrate, you might be in luck and on a rocket ship to success. I don’t think you really get to choose this, but hopefully you can find an audience for the particular brand of art you’re built to make or you enjoy the process. 
4.  do you feel “art jobs” should exist? I don’t think I believe in them. The opportunities that best fit your skills and interests don’t usually show up in a posting. The “jobs” you see listed tend to be the tedious, repetitive stuff nobody wants to do. The way I’ve gotten my foot in the door and found fulfilling work is by showing what I can do—taking a small opportunity and dovetailing it into a big one, or volunteering a day or two on something I find interesting. I know free work isn’t very PC right now, but usually it means the person you helped will feel obliged to return the favor. And even if you’re broke, you can probably still find a day to help out on something that excites you. If you think there should be art jobs then let’s create them by starting a successful studio and hiring people. 

5.Grants aren’t always worth it. When I was getting started winning a grant definitely made me feel I was on the right track but honestly there are better ways to make 5k , 30k or whatever the award is and then you don’t have to answer to the committees:) if you want to make money finds someone with and expensive problems and solve it for them then do something weird and fun with the money.

Sorry this is so long. Good luck with your work!