What's the red flag that made you walk away from a gallery?
I'll go first. Years back a space in the Rhineland was very keen, very warm, wanted to talk about a solo. Then came the contract: I pay for the printing of the catalogue, I pay half the framing, and there is a "participation fee" for the opening. I asked what they paid for. The answer was, essentially, the room.
I said no and it was the right no. But I still think about it, because they were friendly and I wanted the show.
So: what is the thing a gallery said or did that made you quietly take your folder and leave? Not the obvious villain stuff, more the small sentence that told you everything.
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the participation fee for the opening is a new one on me, jaysus. paying to be the entertainment at your own show.
mine was softer than that. a place near me, lovely woman, all enthusiasm, and halfway through the chat she says "we'd want the work to sit together a bit more, you know, cohesive." meaning they wanted me to stop with the hares and do a run of something they'd seen sell at another fair. nothing rude in it, she was genuinely trying to help. but the whole thing turned in my head right there, because what she was really saying was the work is the thing they tolerate to get the room filled. and if that's the arrangement, you're not showing, you're supplying.
I finished the tea, said I'd think on it, never went back. still pass the window now and then and feel grand about it.
the friendly ones are the hard ones to walk from, that's the whole trick of it.