the gallery that offered me a solo show but wanted me to pay for the opening
Early in my career, a decent gallery in a decent city offered me a solo show. Then quietly mentioned I'd be covering the opening, drinks, food, printed invites, the whole thing. I was young and hungry so I said yes. Spent half the sale before the work sold.
Told myself it was normal. It wasn't.
What's the most creative expense a gallery has tried to push onto you? I'll start: someone once asked me to pay for the insurance on the venue, not the work. The venue.
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I had a gallery ask me to cover the cost of the paper for my own show. Not the printing, the blank paper. They'd print it themselves but I'd supply the stock. Said it was standard.
I didn't know any better so I agreed. Still bothers me more than the bigger expenses, somehow. It's so petty.
Took me a while to realise that a real gallery's job is to absorb those costs, not pass them down. The line between partnership and customer shouldn't be that blurry.
The paper thing is somehow worse than the big ones, you're right. It's the pettiness of it. Like they looked at the budget and thought "this is the line item we move over to the artist." Says everything about how they see you.
I had a gallery early on tell me I needed to provide my own tools for the install. Which, fine, whatever, I have tools. But they meant it as a condition, not a convenience, like they'd factored zero labour or equipment into their side. Showed up with my own hammer and had this moment of wait, what exactly is their job here.
The tools thing, it's funny now but at the time I stood there in my boots thinking "is this normal." It wasn't. But you don't know until you've been through a few.
The curatorial fee one really gets me though. That's not a line item, that's a test. And some artists pay it because they don't know they can say no.
The paper thing is somehow worse than the big ones, you're right. It's the pettiness of it. Like they looked at the budget and thought "this is the line item we move over to the artist." Says everything about how they see you.