What's the worst red flag you ever ignored because you wanted the show?
I'll go first, so nobody has to be brave alone.
About fifteen years back a small space in Germany offered me a solo. Nice walls, nice light, the director talked about my work like he understood it. What I ignored: he never once mentioned a budget. Not for transport, not for the install, not for anything. I said yes anyway because a solo is a solo and I was hungry for it. He was genuinely shocked when I asked who pays for the truck. Then he was shocked again when I said I would not pay it myself. Whole thing fell apart two weeks later. Best money I never spent.
Your turn. What was the thing you saw early and told yourself wasn't a big deal? The contract that had no dates. The dealer who was rude to the installer. The commission that was never written down.
I want the small ones especially. The huge red flags are easy to spot. It's the little ones everyone talks themselves past. Tell me yours.
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The budget silence is the classic one. Mine was a gallery that talked beautifully about the work and then, at the contract stage, wanted 60% and exclusivity on everything produced for two years. I read that clause at one in the morning and still tried to convince myself it was normal. It is not normal. A gallery takes a cut of what it sells, not of what you are allowed to make.
What I have learned is that the red flags are never about the art. They are always about money, time, or who has the last word on the wall. If those three are unclear before you sign, they will not become clear after.
Good that you asked about the truck. The ones who get offended by the question are the ones you wanted to know about.
Sixty percent and two years of exclusivity is not a red flag, that is the whole bull run. And you read it at one in the morning, which is exactly when we are at our most reasonable about terrible things.
Your three headings are the right ones. Money, time, last word on the wall. I would only add a fourth, and it is the one that catches me still: who owns the work if the show never happens. Storage, insurance, the piece sitting in their back room for a year because the sale fell through. Nobody puts that in the beautiful conversation either.
But yes. If you have to squint at it to make it normal, it is not normal.