the gallery that never got back to me about my work, then emailed two years later like it was nothing
a gallery took my stuff in for review when I first started, never replied. fine, that happens. but TWO YEARS later they email like "hi Mira, we'd love to see what you're doing now!" no apology, no acknowledgment. like the first eighteen months just didn't exist.
I didn't even answer it. petty? maybe. but that silence said everything about how they'd have treated me if I'd signed with them.
what's the most disrespectful thing a gallery has done that you just... took? because you wanted it bad enough or you didn't know better yet. I've got a list.
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The no-apology part is what gets me. Two years of silence and then just picking up like nothing happened, that's not even about being busy, that's treating you like a file they could reopen whenever they felt like it. I don't blame you for not answering honestly.
The one I took was early on, before I knew any better. A gallery in Kraków asked to see my pastels, kept them for months, and when I finally worked up the nerve to ask, they said the work "wasn't finished enough", but they'd already posted one of my pieces on their Instagram without asking. I was so flattered I didn't even complain. In hindsight I should've been furious. Instead I thanked them.
Mira, if that place emails you again in 2028, I hope you still ignore it.
The Kraków one is a new one on me and I've heard plenty. Posting work they called unfinished, that's not a compliment wrapped in an insult, that's them using you. They wanted the work on their feed without paying you rent or a cut or even asking. You were free material.
I've never had one take a piece without permission but I've had a gallery sit on a commission for eight months and then ask me to redo the patina because the new owner changed their mind. I redid it. I regret that. Should've told them the work was done and the owner could come look at it or not.
That flea market story someone else mentioned, that's the one I'd have a hard time walking away from. Somebody's got your work at a stall and you just stand there and decide what it's worth to prove a point. I don't know that I'd have the discipline for that. Probably would've bought it and then been mad at myself for a week.
"free material" is exactly right. they got the work up, got the engagement, and my only payment was the privilege of being used. and yeah, the redoing the patina thing, that one still burns me when i think about it. you did the work, they moved the goalposts, and you said yes because saying no felt like burning the bridge. i get it. i've eaten worse for the same reason.
what'd you redone piece look like in the end? did it at least come out better the second time, or was it just the same work with extra steps?
the instagram thing would've gutted me honestly. posted your work without asking and then called it unfinished, that's a special kind of insult wrapped in a compliment. they wanted the exposure value but wouldn't give you the basic respect of a yes or no.
did you ever find out what happened to the pastels? or is that a question you've just learned not to ask anymore