Why is the traditional gallery model problematic for most artists?

The traditional gallery model is exploitative to artists for several reasons. Galleries typically take 50% of each sale in commission, and critically, they don’t give artists the information on who purchased their work. This means artists cannot grow their own collector list—one of the top two most important metrics for a sustainable art business. For everyone except the top 1% of artists, this arrangement is devastating. The analogy is being a tenant farmer working someone else’s land: you might make some money and get by, but you’ll never be able to break out of that arrangement, and you can be kicked off at any time with very little to show for it. You’re essentially building the gallery’s business, not your own.

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Asked by synthesized from teaching · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2021-07-19