The art world runs on information asymmetry and it suits almost everyone except the artist. I write about what a commission split covers, why your work is priced wrong in both directions, how a gallery decides who to show, and what a collector is actually buying. I sold other people's work for twenty-six years and took half, so I can tell you exactly what that half was for and when it was not earned.
If you search for a “complete guide to galleries” online, you’ll mostly find two things: breathless, romanticized nonsense about “discovering talent” or cold, impenetrable industry jargon designed to make you feel like an outsider. I spent twenty-six years behind a polished mahogany desk, and let me tell you, the reality of the gallery system has […]
I remember sitting in a drafty backroom of a London gallery in the late nineties, watching a collector stare at a large-scale gelatin silver print with the same skeptical squint one might reserve for a confusing tax return. He wasn’t looking at the composition or the light; he was looking for the brushstrokes. For decades, […]
I remember standing in my gallery during an opening in 2008, watching a serious collector squint at a piece of mixed media on linen, 40 x 40cm, 2005. He wasn’t looking at the brushwork; he was staring at a wall label that read like a thesis on post-structuralist semiotics. He looked utterly lost, and frankly, […]
Stop thinking that mastering the anatomy of a human skull is the secret to how to paint a portrait. I spent twenty years in a gallery watching collectors walk past technically perfect, “correct” faces to stare at canvases that felt like they were breathing, and let me tell you, the distinction is rarely about the […]
I remember a young painter—talented, earnest, and utterly terrified—standing in my gallery ten years ago, clutching a canvas she’d made during a period of intense personal struggle. She wasn’t looking to show it; she was looking to liquidate it because her rent was due. She asked me, with a voice trembling like a leaf, about […]
Stop treating a gallery visit like a silent prayer in a cathedral. Most people walk into a room, stare at a canvas with a look of forced profundity, and wait for the “art” to happen to them—usually while feeling an immense, unearned guilt because they don’t know the right vocabulary to justify why they like […]
I remember a man in my gallery back in the late nineties—a lovely, well-meaning gentleman who had just dropped sixty thousand pounds on a series of large-scale abstract oils. He came back to me six months later, looking slightly frantic, asking if he could “rebalance his portfolio” by offloading the pieces to fund a new […]
I remember sitting in the back of my gallery during a particularly stagnant Tuesday in 2008, staring at a series of large-scale oils that were technically proficient but utterly soul-crushing. The artist had spent months obsessing over botanical accuracy, yet the paintings felt like nothing more than expensive wallpaper. They had missed the fundamental truth […]
I remember sitting in a dusty studio in Cornwall back in ’94, watching a sculptor stare at a bill from a bronze foundry that was nearly triple what he’d budgeted for the materials alone. He looked at me like I was the enemy for asking why the numbers were so high, but the truth was […]
I remember a particular Tuesday in my old gallery, standing in front of a stunning, large-scale oil on linen from 2014, watching a serious collector squint at a canvas that should have been breathtaking. The problem wasn’t the brushwork or the composition; it was a cheap, warm-toned halogen bulb positioned just far enough away to […]