The gallery that ghosted me for 4 months and then emailed like nothing happened

Okay I need to know if this is just me or if this is normal because I'm still kind of reeling from it haha.

So I reached out to this gallery back in like... April? Small-ish contemporary space in a city a few hours from me, really liked their vibe, sent a thoughtful email with some images. Heard nothing. Cool, whatever, I figured it was a no and moved on. Then in August I get this email from them like "hey! we'd love to see more of your work, are you free to chat next week?" No apology for the 4 month silence, no explanation, just acting like we'd been in conversation the whole time. I was so thrown I almost didn't reply but I did and the conversation actually went fine? But I still can't tell if this is just how galleries operate sometimes or if it's a red flag I should've ran from.

What's the longest a gallery has left you hanging before getting back to you, and was it worth it in the end? Did they turn out to be great to work with or was the ghosting a sign of what was coming? I need stories so I know whether to feel good about this or not lol.

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Teddy Lin·4w

lol this is so normal it hurts. galleries operate on their own timeline and it's usually "whenever we feel like it" o'clock. the no-apology thing is what gets me though, like a "sorry for the delay" costs nothing and would actually make you feel better about working with them. but they'd rather pretend the 4 month gap just... didn't happen.

i had one get back to me 7 months later asking if i was "still available" and i was so thrown i almost replied with "who is this"

Dani OkaforOP·4w

RIGHT?? The "sorry for the delay" would have fixed everything and they just... chose violence instead haha.

Also "who is this" is sending me because honestly I was so close to that energy. I stared at my screen for like five minutes trying to figure out if I'd imagined reaching out to them in the first place. Like wait, did I email you or did I dream it??

The 7 months one is genuinely unhinged though. At that point I feel like you're within your rights to reply "I'm literally a different person now, I've grown"

Lukas Brandt·4w

Four months is a long time, but it's not unusual. I've had it happen, and I've watched it happen to other people. The no-apology part is a signal, though, not about rudeness necessarily, but about how they see the balance of power. You're the one who wants in, so they don't feel they owe you an explanation.

The question is whether you still want in after that. Some good galleries operate this way because they're chaotic, not because they're disrespectful. But some of them operate this way because they've decided they can. Worth knowing which one you're dealing with before you get too far into it.

Dani OkaforOP·4w

Yeah this is exactly the knot I'm trying to untangle, is it chaotic-but-sincere or is it "we know you need us more than we need you" energy. Because I WANT to give them the benefit of the doubt, I know galleries are juggling a million things, but the total radio silence for four months and then just "hey!" with zero acknowledgment is what threw me. Like even a "sorry it's been wild over here" would have made me feel like a person instead of a submission form they finally checked.

I haven't replied yet honestly. Part of me wants to hear them out because what if it's a good fit and I'm just being prideful. But another part of me is like... if this is how it starts, how's it gonna feel a year in when I'm trying to get paid or get answers about a show, yknow?