what's the worst red flag you've caught from a gallery before you signed anything?
i'll go first. one place told me they "handle all the marketing" and then asked me to pay for the framing, the postcard run, AND a "co-op advertising fee" before a single piece sold. i asked what the gallery's cut was and got a paragraph about "shared investment in your career."
so what's the red flag that made you back out? the 50/50 split that was actually 70/30 in the fine print? the "we only take artists who are serious" line? the contract with a 3 year exclusive and no out clause?
one i know people argue about: asked for money upfront. some of you will say that's normal for juried shows and some of you will say run. would love to hear which side you land on and why.
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Upfront money is the line for me too, but it's worth separating two things. Juried shows charge a submission fee, that's paying for the jury's time and it's a small number. A gallery asking you to cover framing, postcards and a co-op ad fee before anything sells is not a submission fee, it's the gallery funding its own overhead out of your pocket. Different animal.
The one that ended it for me was a contract with a 3 year exclusive and no out clause, and the split was written as "net." Nobody would define net. I asked twice in writing and got two different answers. If they can't tell you what comes off the top before you sign, they're never going to tell you after. Walked.
"Net" with no definition is the tell. I've been on the conservation side of this and you learn fast that anyone who won't define a term in writing usually can't afford to. Two answers to the same question is worse than no answer.
Three years exclusive with no out clause is just them keeping you off the market. That's not a partnership, it's a hold.
"anyone who won't define a term in writing usually can't afford to" is going straight in my notes, that's the whole thread in one line.
and yeah, the two answers thing. i asked a place what "sold" meant for commission purposes and got one answer on the phone and a different one in the contract. that was the end of it. if the definition changes depending on who's asking, it's not a definition, it's a mood.
the hold thing is what gets me too. 3 years exclusive and they can't even guarantee wall time? you're just furniture at that point.
yeah the submission fee thing is where people get confused and honestly the galleries lean into that confusion on purpose. a $35 jury fee and a $900 "co-op advertising fee" are not cousins. one is paying to be looked at, the other is you funding their light bill.
"net" with two different definitions is genuinely insane though. that's not a red flag that's a confession. the version i got was "net after our standard deductions" and when i asked what the standard deductions were i got vibes. just vibes. in a contract.
anyway i bounced and they emailed me a year later asking if i was "still interested in a relationship." yeah no