A gallery in Stockholm wanted to show my work last year. Nice space, good light, I was flattered. Then they sent the contract: 60/40 in their favor, plus I pay for framing and transport both ways. So if a piece sells for 4000 SEK, I get 1600 after costs if I'm lucky.

I said yes anyway because that's what you're supposed to do. Get the exposure, get the line on the CV, get the credibility. The show came and went. Sold one small piece. Lost money on the whole thing.

I've been thinking about it differently since. Not because 40% is unfair, galleries have overhead, I get it. But because I spent months making work specifically for that show, work that was slightly bigger and more "gallery-ready" than what I normally do, and none of it sold. The piece that did sell was a tiny thing I'd made in an afternoon, priced at 800 SEK, a scrap study I almost didn't frame.

So the lesson I'm sitting with is: I bent my practice toward what I thought a gallery wanted, and it didn't even work. The thing that worked was the thing I'd have done anyway.

I'm not anti-gallery. I'm just tired of pretending the math works when it doesn't, and tired of contorting my work to fit a room that mostly wants to see if you'll show up on your own dime.