Let me preface this by saying that I don't have a problem with gallery commissions entirely. Galleries are businesses. They're venues for artists to show and sell their work, and it's a reasonable thing for them to take a cut if the artist makes a sale. This is a business, and the artist and gallery should have a partnership, in theory. Gallery commissions are never a hidden fee. They're not in the fine print of the contract. They're typically front and center, and I would never do business with a gallery without first knowing what the commission percentage is. And I do business with galleries that have reasonable commissions, or that have reasonable promotional material that go along with their commissions. What do I mean by that? Well let me tell you.
So for those of you not involved with the fine art business, a gallery commission is a certain percentage of the final sale of a piece that the gallery takes, and the artist gets the rest. The lowest commission I've ever had to deal with was about 10%, although that was not with a gallery, but a local non-profit art organization that is volunteer driven, and does its annual show over a single weekend out of the year. As far as galleries go, the lowest commission I've dealt with is 25%. So if I sold a painting out of this gallery for $1000, the gallery would take $250, and I would get $750. And that's pretty decent. If you ask me, 25% is not only reasonable, but its quite magnificent, for me anyway. It gives the gallery its cut while still favoring the artist.
But how much is too much when it comes to these commissions? After all, I haven't even mentioned the additional costs of participating in a gallery show.
First, there are entry fees. This is a non-refundable fee that the artist pays just to apply for a show, with no guarantee that the artist will have any of his work accepted into said show. These are all over the map. They may be a flat fee for a certain number of entries, or they may depend on the number of entries that the artist wants to submit. For instance, I've applied for shows that have a flat fee of $30 for 3 to 5 entries (3 to 5 paintings in my case). I've also applied to shows that had entry fees of $30 for just 1 entry, and then $10 for each additional entry after that. And the more I look at that, the more insane it sounds.
Secondly, unless you are local, you may have to ship your work to the gallery where the show is taking place. This is going to be a major expense, depending on what type of shipping service you use and the type of shipping boxes and other shipping materials you use to pack up your work. And by the way, there is still no guarantee at this point that you're even going to sell your work, so you're going to have to include return shipping labels with your work so the gallery can ship your unsold work back to you after the show ends, which is another additional expense to you.
And thirdly, there's something that some galleries like to call an "unpacking and maintenence" fee. This is usually something like $15-20 just so the gallery can unpack your work and store your boxes somewhere.
All of a sudden, that $1000 painting that you only got $750 is not sounding as great anymore. Especially if that's the only painting that you sold during the show. But what about when the gallery commission is more than 25%? What if it's 30, or 40, 45, or yes even 50%? Are you even breaking even at that point? Personally, I don't know if there are galleries out there that have over 50% commissions. I've heard of such a thing, but cannot confirm it. Even if there are galleries like that, I would never do business with them.
So let me get back to what I mentioned before about reasonable promotional material. I've done business with galleries that have 30-35% commissions, and I will likely keep doing them. And then I've also done shows that have commissions as high as 45-50%. But I question whether or not I want to keep doing shows like that. I need some major incentive to do so. And that's when promotional material comes in. And related to that is the overall reputation of the gallery.
I did a show a few years ago with a gallery that had a 45% commission. And my little itty bitty painting sold at the show for $675. And of course, I got only $371.25. But I really didn't have a problem with it because for one thing, the gallery has a great reputation and is one that I had done business with before. Secondly, this gallery was working in collaboration with an organization, so it only took half of that 45% commission, and the other half went to the organization. Thirdly, this gallery did what I believe it was supposed to do and what it was capable of doing to promote the show and attract clients and collectors to it. Things that I alone could not do.
If a gallery or show is going to take 45-50% of the sale of my painting, it had better be because that show/gallery worked just as much, if not more so than I to promote the show and promote my work. I'm talking print advertising in magazines and newspapers, social media advertising, email newsletters, billboard or other signage around town, and physical print postcards and other mailers. Yes, there are galleries out there that take care of their artists. I'm just saying... I've been with galleries and I've done shows where the commission percentage was this high, and they did not even lift a finger to promote the show. At least, not as much as I tried to do myself. And there's really only so much that I can do after paying the amount of money that I paid to get into the show to begin with.
Okay, I'm done ranting. Let's just sum up with this: Gallery commissions are not a bad thing. In fact, they are very reasonable and should be expected by any artist who does business with a gallery. But if you are an artist, just be careful and mindful of what these commissions represent. And how much is too much if they don't represent what they should. Sure galleries have their bills to pay, but so do you. And yours are the only ones you should care about being able to pay.
