All right, I’ll go first. I have a few experiences with art galleries and let me just say they are not all bad. But I’ll share the first one that pops into my mind. A gallery owner asked if I would participate in a fund raising auction. I was to receive one half of the sales price and I set the starting bid. This is the only way to go (if) you are going to participate in a charity auction, which generally I do NOT recommend.
Anyway, one of the two framed paintings I offered sold and fetched a good price. The other painting was actually returned to me in a perfectly sound and stable box. But when I opened it, I discovered the frame had been shattered into smithereens and the oil painting was just laying on top of the frame fragments. No note, no call, nothing from the gallery owner who sent it. I think the gallery owner was just being hateful and to this day, I honestly don’t know why. I wrote him emails, I left him messages, and I sent him letters trying to get an explanation and payment for the broken frame. Again, nothing, no response.
So I contacted the Executive Director of the charity and I let her know what had happened, and I shared my obvious displeasure. She was appropriately horrified about the way I had been treated and the charity promptly reimbursed me for the frame. The gallery owner, I’ve never heard from him.
Needless to say, this gallery may offer excellent representation to some artists. But just in case, I’m happy to offer fair warning below and to a provide a blog that explores profitable alternatives.
https://www.efgallery.com/
https://www.artistswhothrive.com/