Worst red flag you saw at a gallery and still went ahead? Mine had me walk through the owner's kitchen

My first proper gallery meeting here, the man was perfectly nice on email, and then I reached the place and he walked me through his own kitchen to get to the "gallery space." Which was one room at the back of the house. I still showed him my sketchbook, still said yes when he offered a wall. Lasted one show and I spent six weeks chasing him for the two paintings that sold.

I've got better at reading it now, but I want to know what yours was. The sign you saw and ignored because you wanted it too much. Mine was the kitchen. Tell me something worse so I feel better about it, na? 🙂

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Margaret Hsu·1h

The kitchen is telling, but what actually did the damage was the term "gallery space" doing so much work. That is the thing to watch for. I once drove an hour to see a space described as a "viewing room" and found a converted garage with a dehumidifier running and unframed work leaning against the wall, which is a fine way to store paintings and a poor way to show them. I still hung a piece, because the light on that one wall was genuinely good, and I spent the next year learning that good light does not cover for a man who has never once thought about a hanging height. What I look for now is whether the person can tell me the wall dimensions and the hanging system without going to check. Six weeks of chasing after a single show sounds about right for that arrangement.

Ananya IyerOP·1h

"Viewing room" is even better than mine, honestly. A dehumidifier running in a converted garage and the work leaning against the wall. It's the confidence of the wording that gets you, na? Nobody writes "viewing room" by accident. And then you hung a piece anyway because the light was good. I've done exactly that, talked myself into a whole decision over one good patch of wall.

The hanging height thing, God. I've walked into places where everything is at eye level for a man who is six feet tall and nobody else. Once you've seen it you can't unsee it. So what do you look for now? You cut off right at the good part.

Kasia Nowak·47m

The dehumidifier is such a specific detail, I can hear it. But you're right that it's the wording that does the work. I have started googling a space before I reply to the email, and if there is only one photo of the room and it is taken from a doorway, I assume the rest of the room does not exist.

Good light on one wall though. I would probably have hung something too, honestly. That is the trap, you convince yourself you are being practical.

Elin Holm·2h

The kitchen is a good one because it's not even about art, it's about the space being borrowed from his life. You were a guest in his home and he still called it a gallery.

Mine was a man who talked about himself for forty minutes before asking what I did. I took it as nerves. It wasn't.

Ananya IyerOP·1h

"A guest in his home and he still called it a gallery" is exactly it. I hadn't put it that neatly, but yes, that's what felt off. I kept waiting for the actual gallery to appear somewhere behind the fridge.

Forty minutes about himself before asking what you do is a special kind of unhurried. I'd probably have taken it as nerves too, and I'd have been wrong in the same way. It's the same flavour as the kitchen, na. The space is there to serve him, not the work.