What Should an Artist Ask Before Signing With a Gallery?

Gallery representation can give an artist access to buyers, exhibitions, promotion, and professional relationships that are difficult to build alone. It also places valuable work and sales responsibilities in someone else's hands.

You should not deliver artwork on a handshake and assume the details will sort themselves out. A written consignment agreement protects the working relationship by making the business terms visible before a sale or problem occurs.

Understand what the gallery is agreeing to do

Ask where the work will be shown, how it will be promoted, who the likely buyers are, how long the consignment lasts, and whether the arrangement is exclusive. If exclusivity applies, the agreement should define the territory, type of work, sales channels, and whether your own studio or online sales are included.

Representation is more than wall space. You should understand whether the gallery will arrange exhibitions, contact collectors, attend fairs, produce photography, handle shipping, provide sales reports, or build a longer-term market for the work.

Put the money terms in plain language

The agreement should state the retail price or pricing method, gallery commission, payment schedule, tax responsibilities, approved expenses, and how discounts affect each party's share. Do not assume a stated percentage answers every money question.

Ask when you are paid after the buyer pays, what happens with installment sales, and whether the gallery may discount without your approval. The Art Dealers Association of America professional practices identifies core written-consignment terms, including the work description, consignment period, commission or net price, and responsibility for expenses.

Document every work transferred

Create a signed inventory that includes the artist, title, date, medium, dimensions, stated price, condition, and a photograph of each work. Both parties should keep a copy and update it when work is sold, returned, moved, or added.

Confirm who insures the work in transit, in storage, during installation, and while on display. The agreement should also explain responsibility for loss or damage and who selects and pays for conservation or repair.

Define the end of the relationship before it begins

State how either party may end the agreement, how much notice is required, when unsold work must be returned, who pays return shipping, and how pending sales or contacts are handled. Vague endings create disputes because the artist and gallery may each believe they still control the same opportunity.

The College Art Association professional-practices guidance recommends written loan or consignment agreements and discusses exclusive dealer relationships.

Questions worth asking a prospective gallery

• Which artists and buyers are the closest fit for this work?
• What promotion and sales activity should I realistically expect?
• What is exclusive, for how long, and in what territory or channel?
• Who controls prices and discounts?
• When will sales reports and payments arrive?
• Who pays shipping, installation, photography, fairs, and other expenses?
• Who insures the work at each stage?
• How are unsold works and active sales handled when the agreement ends?

A professional gallery should not be offended by professional questions. The purpose is not to predict every possible problem; it is to make sure the artist and gallery are entering the same relationship rather than two different relationships described by the same word.