VANITY galleries

A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges artists fees to exhibit their work and makes most of its money from artists rather than from sales to the public. Some vanity galleries charge a lump sum to arrange an exhibition, while others ask artists to pay regular membership fees and then promise to organize an exhibition with a certain period. 

Well that's what Wikipedia says !!!!!!!!!! I think these galleries are scams and a complete waste of time and in my early days out of art college i even fell for a few . Being so much wiser nowadays i can see what they really are and they just crush dreams of young or inexperienced artists. Every month i get emails from these galleries wanting me to exhibit in NYC or a castle in Italy or even the center of London . They are all the same and always have the same formula approach thats how u can tell in 2 minutes flat that they are indeed a vanity gallery . I can assure you they have no interest in selling your work or mine .  

I was actually at one of these galleries for one of my openings and was in shock at how out of their depth they were when i actually sold a painting . ie the one above called SUNSET STRIP .They clearly never actually expect too, let alone can work out how to do the sale for the client . Was just all very awkward. I also met some of the other artist that were on show as well . We had all spend our money and some had come from afar. While yes i was young and inexperienced i was a hot seller in Australia and was from the moment i took flight from uni . I had been spoit by having wonderful galleries in OZ representing me and had no idea that galleries all over the world were not the same . 

   This is my story but you may have a far more positive one in one of these vanity galleries.It is a very expensive lesson that i had to learn , not just the cost but the shipping of the works aswell . I have since found many galleries overseas that are awesome and work just like the ones here but they are few and far between and finding them is like a needle in a hay stack.