Which red flag did you ignore and regret?
I had a gallery offer me representation once with terms I knew were off. 60/40 in their favour, exclusive for three years, no mention of how we'd handle shows or promotion. I signed anyway because it was my first real one and I wanted it to be real. Cost me two years and a fair bit of money to get out of it.
I've learned since to trust the feeling in the room. If the person across the table can't answer a simple question about how they sell work, that's the answer.
What's the red flag you saw early and pushed past anyway, and did it cost you or did it work out?
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The gallery that wanted my work but had no answer when I asked who the collector base actually was. Not who they hoped it was, who it was. Blank look. I told myself it was nerves, that they'd build it once they had real paintings on the walls.
They did not build it. Two years of exhibitions where nobody came, and I kept making excuses for them because I wanted the validation of having a gallery at all.
The contract you described would have made me walk, honestly. 60/40 in their favour with no promotion plan is not a partnership, it's a lease on your career. But I understand signing it anyway. The first yes is intoxicating when you've been working alone for years.
The feeling in the room is right. I trust the questions they can't answer now, not the ones they can.
The blank look says everything. Any serious gallery can name ten collectors off the top of their head, not because they're boasting but because they'd be able to tell you who their last three sales went to. You asked the right question and the silence was the answer.
And you're right about the contract. A 60/40 split can be fine if the other 40 percent is visible, if they're spending it on freight and framing and openings and someone actually walking the work around. Mine wasn't. It was just a number on a page that favoured them and I nodded along because I was twenty-nine and terrified nobody else would ever ask.
The wanting it to be real part, I know that one well. Two years is a long time to make excuses. But you got out, and that's more than plenty of people manage. Did you end up somewhere better after, or did you go without representation for a while?