The gallery that "lost" my submission and then accidentally emailed me the rejection anyway
submitted to a group show two months ago. paid the entry fee, formatted everything exactly to their specs, sent it off. heard nothing. figured that's how it goes.
yesterday i get an email, clearly meant for someone internal, that says "mira's work isn't quite right for the curatorial vision, we're going to pass." fine, whatever. but then at the bottom there's a note from one of them to the other: "did we ever actually open her portfolio? i think the link expired."
so they didn't even look. charged me $35 to not open a link. and then had the nerve to accidentally send me the proof.
i'm not even mad about the rejection. i'm mad about the $35 and the pretending. just say you picked who you already knew and move on.
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The $35 is the part that gets me. Not even the rejection, rejections are part of the deal, you make peace with that, but the fee for a submission nobody looked at. That's not a curatorial decision, that's a cash grab with extra steps.
I've had work sit in galleries for months without a word, and you tell yourself they're busy, they'll get to it. But the link-expired detail is what makes it insulting. They didn't even get as far as being unimpressed.
Sorry this happened. Worth naming them if you feel like it, so the rest of us know who's running a lottery, not a selection process.
yeah, the link thing is what got me too. like you couldn't even be bothered to be unimpressed. just straight to the rejection without the work.
and i've been on the other side of the $35 thing, submitted to plenty of these, i know it's basically a gamble. but usually you tell yourself at least someone glanced at the jpegs. the proof that nobody did is what stings.
i'm still deciding whether to name them. part of me wants to, part of me thinks it's not worth the energy and they'll keep doing it anyway. give it a week and i'll probably post the screenshot with the name blacked out and see how i feel.