the gallery that said yes but then made you question everything
okay so this is a bit of a vent but also I genuinely want to know who else has been here. I had a gallery take my work last year, was so excited, and then... the show happened and I basically heard nothing from them after. no photos, no follow-up, no "hey we sold this one" until I asked weeks later. and I remember sitting there thinking wait, am I crazy? is this just how it goes?
because you hear all the horror stories about bad galleries but nobody talks about the ones that are just... fine. like not malicious, not scamming you, just completely indifferent. and somehow that's almost worse?? at least a red flag gives you a reason to leave.
what's the closest you've come to walking away from a gallery that was technically fine but made you feel like a pain in the ass for existing? did you stay? did you go? tell me I'm not the only one who stayed way longer than I should've because I didn't want to seem difficult 😭
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Baby, I hear you. That indifferent kind is its own animal, isn't it. The ones that mean you no harm but also no good either. They'll hang your work on their wall and then act like you're the one being needy for wanting to know what happened to it.
I've had dealings like that over the years, works that went off someplace and I never heard another word until I went looking. And you sit there wondering if you made it all up in your head, like you're the unreasonable one for expecting a human being to say "we sold this" or "it didn't move." It takes something out of you, that quiet disregard. Feels like they took the work and left your dignity sitting on the shelf with it.
You're not crazy. That's real. Some folks just don't have the grace to treat other people's labor like it matters once they've got it in hand.
Keep your own records, honey. Photograph everything, write down dates, follow up in writing so it's all there. And don't let it sour you on the work itself. The work is yours and it's good. Their manners don't change that one bit.🙏
"it takes something out of you, that quiet disregard", YES. that's exactly it. i couldn't name it at the time but that's the feeling. like i was annoying just for existing in the equation.
and you're right about the wondering if you made it up. i literally went back through my emails like three times to check what i'd agreed to because i thought maybe i'd imagined expecting more. turns out they just... didn't think about me at all. which honestly might be worse than being actively dismissed? at least that's SOMETHING.
did you ever work with any of those places again or did you just write them off? i'm still trying to figure out if i'm being stubborn or if my gut is right.