Tuesday 15 May 2012

Decisions

So, the gallery says:



Artist must first submit their portfolio or website for the gallery director to review. The director is the one who reviews all submissions and makes the final decision. If your work is chosen for representation you will receive an agreement. Within the agreement there are different representational/promotional offers you may choose from. There is no fee for submitting your works nor are you obligated to accept. 
• At least 5 images of your artwork, or a direct link to your personal website.
• Artwork title, medium and dimensions
• Images must be Jpeg, smaller than 5MB
• Your biography
• Short statement about yourself and your goals

The cost for basic representation is $3,850 for one year (flexible payment plans are available).  Additional services may be included depending on the level of representation that you select.

The basic representation package includes:
  1. Participation in a collective exhibition in their gallery in Chelsea, New York.
  2. Promotion on their web-site
  3. Promotion on their art shopping site, which records more than 300,000 artworks view every month and 10,000 clicks a day
  4. Press release written by an art critic
  5. Inclusion in the exhibition catalog
  6. Personalized PR efforts
  7. Group invitation cards
  8. Ads and listings in New York publications
  9. Assistance, if needed, in pricing your artwork   
Framing and shipping costs are not included in the representation fee. However, if accepted for representation our experienced staff will help you and guide you with shipping your artwork to the gallery for your exhibition.


The commission structure on the sale of art is 70% for the artist and 30% for the gallery.
The questions are:
Why me? 
I've had a look on the art shopping site and the work is varied and selling (priced, which is another thing altogether) at anywhere from about $750 - $3500 a print. My work looks staid by comparison.
Is it a scam? 
I don't think so, but it does seem a high price to pay - annually, even if they have special payment terms.


10,000 clicks a day..........


Ho hum.



6 comments:

  1. Congrats on the successes reported on the previous post John, a very good week. It must give you a warm glow to be approached like this...very well done. I can't give you any advice at all on this...however if it were me I would research carefully before handing over any money as it is not an insignificant sum. Google various computations of the gallery/company name etc just for your own piece of mind, see if there are any reviews out there and if you can speak to a 'real-life' person there to reassure yourself and perhaps ask to speak to another artist they represent too and get the real low down.

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  2. Thanks for the sound advice Penny, I think that checking with another artist seems the best idea. But I'm struggling with the "why me" but at the moment, so the feeling is luke warm, shall we say :o)

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  3. Agree with Penny's advice—and your reservations—it seems such a lot of money to pay—you need to be sure

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    1. Well I am certainly not sure. I'm going to try and get hold of some of their featured artists , as Penny suggested, to try and get first hand experience.

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  4. I also share your reservations about this. I understand that it is increasingly common, particularly with group exhibitions, for galleries to require artists to frame and transport the works themselves, but any gallery that requires you to pay sounds a little dodgy to me. It may not be an out and out scam, but it's clear from the above that the gallery is transferring all the risk of the transaction to you. If no pictures are sold they will still be in funds from the transaction, while you will be substantially out of pocket. I hope that your research proves fruitful and that this works out well for you, whatever you decide.

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  5. Thanks Eileen. I think that their approach is fairly normal rom what I understand - sometimes the "fee" is smaller sometimes larger and the commissions vary accordingly. I have sought guidance from other artists on their list but so far no response - early days perhaps. It is unlikely that I will take it any further for two reasons, the cost and, basically, the work isn't nearly good enough nor coherent enough.

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