Early on, a gallery in Lisbon said they could only take my work if I gave them 60% and called the rest "exposure." I was young and said yes. I still wince about it.
Did you ever say yes to one of those? Or did you walk away?
I said yes once. Early on, a gallery in Lyon wanted me on a retainer, basically owned my inventory for two years for almost nothing. I was 26 and flattered anyone wanted my work at all. It took me a long time to admit it was a bad deal, not just a necessary one.
What I've come to think is that when you're young and no one's offered you anything, the first offer feels like affirmation. You're not just saying yes to the money, you're saying yes to being seen. And galleries know that.
I don't wince about it anymore. I just treat it as part of the tuition.
The tuition line is a good way to put it. I'm going to borrow that.
Two years though, that's a long sentence to serve for the crime of being young and wanting to be wanted. I hope the work you made after that was worth more to you.
I never got the exposure pitch exactly, but I had a gallery in Lyon early on who wanted to keep me on a retainer structure that basically meant they owned my inventory for almost nothing. I was 26 and flattered to be asked, so I said yes for two years. It set me back in a real way, not just financially but in terms of who saw the work and when.
The wince is deserved, but I try not to be hard on my younger self about it. You don't know yet what your work is worth until someone tries to take it for less. The ones who say yes learn the lesson. The ones who never get asked learn a different one.
The retainer structure, that's a new one to me. Almost worse, because it's dressed up as businesslike when it's just the same thing with paperwork.
Two years is a long time to carry that. But you're right about the lesson. I still think about that Lisbon show and what I'd say now. Probably just a quiet no and walk away.