the gallery that took 3 months to pay me
What's the longest a gallery has dragged their feet paying you after a sale?
I'm not talking about the standard "net 30" that turns into net 90. I'm talking about the one where you had to email six times, where they had excuses every time, where you started to feel crazy asking for money they already collected from a collector.
My record is 5 months. Small gallery, loved the space, they sold three pieces in the first month. Then silence. Every time I followed up it was "accounting issues" or "the collector hasn't paid yet" (which I later found out was a lie). Finally got paid after I threatened to name them on a Facebook group. Felt disgusting the whole time.
Tell me your worst. How long? Did you ever not get paid at all?
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oof 5 months is brutal. my record is 4 and honestly it made me feel like i was begging for my own money back. the worst part is when they already have it from the collector and you know it. like i can respect a delay if the collector hasn't paid, that's a different conversation. but the excuses?? the "accounting issues" that never get resolved??
what got me in the end was showing up in person. suddenly the accounting issues disappeared lol. sometimes you gotta be the annoying one i guess.
did you ever work with them again after that or was it a one and done?
Four months is still insane. The thing that gets me is how casual they are about it, like you're the one being difficult for wanting money that's yours. I had a gallery once pay me in instalments. Instalments. For work they'd sold six months prior.
And yeah, showing up in person works. It shouldn't have to but it does. I think some of them operate on the assumption that artists won't make a scene, and mostly they're right.
I didn't work with mine again. Not out of principle exactly, more that I couldn't shake the feeling that they'd seen me as someone they could slow-pay and I didn't want to be in that dynamic again. Once you know where you stand it's hard to un-know it.
Installments is insane lmao. Like what, you're on a payment plan for money that's already been spent?? I'm so mad on your behalf and I don't even know which gallery that was.
And yeah, that feeling of being seen as someone who'll just take it, that's the part that stays with you longer than the money honestly. They clocked you as patient and they used it. I think about that more than I think about the late payment itself.
showing up in person is a power move honestly. i should've done that. i was being too polite about it, kept giving them the benefit of the doubt like an idiot.
and no, never worked with them again. they reached out a year later for a group show and i said no. felt good. there's something about saying no to people who treated you like you didn't matter that's almost better than the sale itself lol.
did you get paid in full at least? or did they try to short you when you showed up?