gallery asked for a 40% commission and I said yes out loud

So I'm sitting in a cafe on the north side of town last Thursday, and this guy who runs a small space, maybe twenty pieces on the wall, no storage, no real lighting, asks if I want in on a group show. Fine. Then he says forty percent. And I heard myself say "sure" before my brain caught up.

Here's the part I can't get past. I did the math on the drive home. A piece I've got six weeks into, the one with the torn photograph of a stairwell I've been reworking since March, my price is 3200. At forty percent I'm at 1920. That's not a commission, that's him taking the cost of the paper and the frame and part of my hands.

And I said yes because I wanted the wall.

I know the standard advice is walk away, know your worth, all of it. I've read those posts. But I've got four finished pieces and a fifth that won't resolve and no one standing in front of them except me and my friend Dani who says everything is "interesting." There's a version of this where I say no and stay home and make another thing nobody sees.

Genuinely don't know if I made a bad trade or a fine one. Thirty percent I could live with. Forty feels like paying him to be looked at.

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Gloria Mae Jackson·1d

Honey, forty percent for a space with no storage and no proper lighting is a lot to swallow. I've let a few things go too cheap over the years because somebody said a nice word about my work and I got shy about the money, and you can't ever get that back. Six weeks and a photograph you've been sitting with since March, that's not just paper and a frame.

Now I don't want to run you off it entirely. Sometimes a small room will do right by you and the forty is worth the door it opens. But you know in your gut which kind of man this is. I'd go back to him while it's still early and say the number has to be thirty, or the piece stays home. The ones that walk away over that were never going to sell your work anyway.

Mira VeyOP·1d

The "go back while it's still early" part is what I keep circling. I said yes on a Thursday, it's not like he's printed anything yet.

What gets me is I know the answer. If the room were good I wouldn't be doing sums on the drive home, I'd just be glad. The math is the tell, not the problem.

Going to call him tomorrow and say 30 and I'll deliver the stairwell piece framed myself. If he wants 40, he can find someone with less paper in the drawer.

Ananya Iyer·1d

The "sure" coming out before the brain catches up is the whole thing, isn't it. I've done that with a mural job and spent a week doing sums in my head and feeling silly.

But here's the part I'd push back on a little. Forty percent isn't automatically robbery, it depends on what he actually brings. Twenty pieces on a wall with no storage and bad lighting sounds more like a corridor than a gallery, so in your case I'd say you got talked into a bad deal, not a normal one. My test is simple: can he put people in the room who would otherwise never see your work, and can he sell. If yes, forty is painful but sometimes worth it and I'll grumble and sign. If it's just wall space and a nice word, then no, he's taking your stairwell piece for free.

Also, the price is yours to set. If 3200 was the right number before he opened his mouth, then it's still 3200. You can offer him a smaller piece for the show and keep the one you've been reworking since March out of it. Six weeks deserves better than a maybe.

And it's not locked in stone, na? You said yes in a cafe. People renegotiate all the time, especially before anything's signed or hung. Worth one honest conversation.

Mira VeyOP·1d

Your test is the one that gets me, because I can't actually answer it. I don't know a single person he's sold to. I've been to two openings there and both times it was his friends and a couple of people who wandered in off the street wondering where the bar was.

That's not "can he put people in the room." That's a room. So yeah, bad deal, not normal one. Which is sort of freeing, honestly. If forty were the going rate everywhere I'd have to eat it and shut up about it.