I'm always so careful, but the stories I hear! The last gallery I approached, they had my contract in a Word doc with tracked changes from 2007 still visible. Voila, a bad sign. What's the most obvious red flag you've spotted, the one that made you run?
Omg that tracked changes thing is HILARIOUS and also so telling haha. I haven't run into anything that obvious, thank goodness, but I did have one gallery that was super pushy about needing my "social media numbers" before they'd even look at my portfolio, and I was like... wait, isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Like, I bring the art, you tell me how you'll sell it? Felt very much like they cared more about my follower count than my actual painting. So weird.
Ah, yes, the social media obsession. It's true, they should be focused on the work, not your follower count. It's the art that matters, not the clicks. Bof. The old Word doc thing for me, it felt like such a lack of professionalism, like they weren't serious. Your experience sounds like they were trying to turn artists into influencers first. Strange.
Oh, that's a funny one, even if it's also depressing. For me, it was a gallery that insisted on representing me, but their 'client list' was just names of people they'd apparently sold to in the past, not artists they'd represented. It felt like they were more interested in collectors than in building a relationship with the art or the artist. I think I just smiled and said 'thank you for your time' and walked away very quickly.
That's even better than my Word doc story! It's true, they should be focused on collectors, but the artists they represent first. That tells you everything about where their priorities lie. Like a matchmaker who only talks about their past successes and never asks about the person they're trying to pair up. C'est ça.