the gallery that ghosted after saying yes
What's the most unprofessional thing a gallery has done to you, after they already took your work?
I'll go first. A gallery in another city confirmed a solo show, dates locked, contract signed. Two months before, I emailed to check in about shipping logistics. Nothing. A week later, nothing. I finally got someone on the phone and they said, I swear, "oh, we decided to push you to next season." No call, no email, nothing. I found out because I called them.
The show never happened. They just... stopped answering.
I know we all have one. What's yours?
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This is very painful to read ji. With us also something like this happened, not exactly same but similar. A gallery in Delhi said they will take our cooperative's work for a group show, we sent the paintings, all selected with care, natural colours on handmade paper, many hours of work. Then nothing. No exhibition, no return of the pieces for many months. When we kept asking, they said some issue with the venue. Finally after one year we got our paintings back, some of them damaged in the corner, the paper bent.
For us it is not just business, it is our family tradition, our mothers and grandmothers did this work. So when they treat it like this, it hurts different. I am sorry your show did not happen. The lack of basic courtesy, that is the worst part. A phone call or a letter, that is all we ask. 🙏
That's worse than mine, honestly. A signed contract and they still ghost, but at least I had my work in my studio the whole time. Yours was out of your hands, for a year, and came back damaged. The disrespect to the work itself, that's what gets me. Handmade paper, natural colours, hours of work, and someone just let it sit and get bent like it was packing material.
I hope your cooperative found a better place to show eventually. There are serious galleries and then there are people who call themselves that but don't understand what they're holding.