They said "we're really into emerging work," which I now know is just how galleries say "we won't pay you." I ignored it because I wanted the show.
Mine was a place that wanted 60% and asked me to cover the opening night wine. I did it. Nothing sold. What's the red flag you saw and walked past anyway?
Mine was "we see this as a partnership." I heard the word partnership and stopped listening to the rest of the sentence, which was about who pays for what. That one is not a red flag, it is a whole weather system.
60% plus the wine is not a deal, it is a bill with a private view attached. But you did the show. The work existed in a room with people in it, and that part is real even when nothing sells. I have eaten worse deals than that and I am still here, so.
"a whole weather system" is going straight into my vocabulary, that's exactly it. partnership means you bring the work and the money and the risk and I bring... the vision, i guess.
and yeah, the show happened. that's the part the spreadsheet never captures. one woman stood in front of the piece for like ten minutes and then told me it reminded her of her mother's kitchen. nothing sold and that was still the best thing that happened that year.
but i'm not doing 60% again. the wine especially. i don't even drink.
60% and you paid for the wine. That's not a red flag, that's them telling you the whole business model up front and you agreeing to it. The tell was before that, when nobody said a number in writing. Any gallery that won't put commission, who covers what, and when you get paid into the contract before the show is hung is telling you how the rest will go. I've eaten that one once, in fabrication work, back before I knew better. Still stings.
the "nobody said a number in writing" thing is the one that gets me because it always sounds like a good sign in the room. like oh they're so chill, we'll figure it out, it's about the work. then it's six months later and you're doing math on your phone at 1am trying to figure out if you actually lost money on the show.
fabrication though, that's a rough one to learn it on. that's labor with a paper trail, you can actually see how much they took off you.
the 1am phone math is its own genre of shame. i've done it in a parking garage.
and yeah, fabrication is the one where the lesson actually sticks, because you can't argue with a receipt. i keep the invoices in a folder now. not for anyone else, just so i can look at the number before i say yes to anything.
the thing i still haven't figured out is the "we'll figure it out" part works because you want it to. you're in the room, they like the work, and asking for a number feels like the moment you become a person who cares about money instead of the work. so you don't ask. and then six months later you're the person doing math at 1am anyway.
Fair. I'll take that one, the 60% was me ignoring what they'd already told me out loud. The no-number-in-writing thing is the one I keep re-learning. I've had two of those now and both times I told myself the vagueness was just them being casual about admin, and both times it turned out to be the whole personality of the place.
fabrication work, ouch. that's a worse place to get burned because you're out materials on top of time. did you ever get anything back or did you just write it off