chasing payments

the same quickbooks notification i’ve seen for the last seven months at 9 a.m. flashes across my phone.

almost instinctively, i swipe to open and log into my account, where the business overview dashboard immediately greets me with black text highlighted in an ochre yellow hue: 

“OVERDUE. Remind your customers about six unpaid invoices. 

They’re worth $__________ in profit.”

i click to view and scroll through the page divided into two sections: overdue and paid. the overdue section reads: 35 days overdue…64 days overdue….90+ days overdue…

a familiar knot of frustration, dread, anger, and fear twists in my stomach, causing it to churn. 

but this time, instead of letting the churning in my gut trigger a loop of ruminating thoughts, i put my phone down and open my laptop…log into gmail, scan for an address, and begin typing and attaching screenshots of the invoices before i can overanalyze or agonize any further over the decision. i inhale, press send, and shut the laptop before i have the chance to regret doing so. 

the following day, there’s a reply. he’s a lawyer, and he’s willing to help. his rate isn’t cheap, but he came highly recommended. i agree to proceed and ask my studio manager to send him the documents requested. 

nothing else to do but wait. 

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last year i exhibited with Simon Lee Gallery as part of their Art Basel (Switzerland) and Frieze London presentations. these were exciting opportunities, ones i believed were laying the groundwork for a potential working relationship that was mutually beneficial and could support my growth and development as an emerging (some would argue “unknown”) artist. i will readily admit that my experience working with galleries over the years has been…well, let’s just call it a learning curve; some experiences have been typical & thus uneventful, some have been exploitative & harmful, others have been absolutely fantastic, and all of them have been clarifying, helping me to understand the business of being an artist in an ecosystem fraught with inequity and inequality and determine for myself how i want to navigate it as i build a career. 

all 12 works i consigned with Simon Lee Gallery during the summer and fall of 2022 were sold. i was (eventually) paid in full for the 6 works sold at Basel, but by January of this year, i had yet to receive any invoicing instructions from the gallery for the works sold a few months prior. i re-read the consignment agreement i signed. more than 60 days had passed since the works were sold according to the last sales statement i’d received, so decided to asked Simon about it directly; he instructed me to email the newly hired accountant, so i did, asking for an updated sales statement and a timeline for payment. i received an updated statement and negotiated new payment terms, including a timeline of when the gallery would make the payments. 

the payment due at the end of january didn’t arrive. february’s payment never materialized. emails to the accountant and my artist liaison at the gallery went unanswered. march came and still no payments. although the gallery did not represent me, i finally decided i could not in good faith continue to have a working relationship with it. i agonized over the wording in an email i sent terminating the relationship and requesting that payment be made within 30 days or further action would be taken. 

there were phone calls and texts from Simon expressing regret, sorrow, apologies, and more promises to pay. 

no payments materialized. 

in june, i reached out for help and received the contact of an experienced art lawyer in London. 

more emails, texts, and promises to pay, but this time it was the lawyer communicating. we learned this had been happening for a long time and i was not the only artist owed. in my case, it was confirmed that collectors had paid in full for the six works. 

two weeks ago, finally, a payment arrived; only a third of what’s owed, but it was something, at least. the lawyer prepared a letter before action and we weighed if sending it and continuing to chase payment was worth what it cost me monetarily and emotionally. 

then this week, the news started to come out, and there was an email from the lawyer stating that what we feared would happen was unfolding. i was told the odds now of me being paid what i’m owed are slim, but “you should make a claim.” 

i sit with this and allow a fresh wave of anger and grief to wash over me, realizing that as much as i’ve tried to let go and move on from it, it’s the unfairness and injustice of it for all of the artists who have been and will be impacted by this that leaves me feeling ill. and as much as i’d just like to absorb the loss and move on from how it has affected me personally, reading the initial reports was a fresh reminder of what i’ve learned behind the scenes as a working artist: that not paying artists for their work when it’s been sold is more normal than it is an anomaly and far too many artists are forced to absorb the losses in silence due to a lack of protection and the inability to afford legal recourse. 

so what now? what do we do? what can be done to change what i’ve learned is a far more pervasive issue than most in this industry and ecosystem are willing to acknowledge let alone take action to change. 

i have been fighting a losing battle for seven months and there is much more i could say about the toll it’s taken or the impact it’s had on my ability to trust others in an industry that’s largely based on relationships…but i am still recovering from surgery, and thankfully have more positive things to look forward to. this situation has already robbed me and my family of enough. 

so i will leave it at this:

artists: protect yourselves. be highly selective and careful about who you work with. due your do diligence even as opportunities are presented to you, and you are building new relationships. heed any and every red flag. 

galleries: receiving full payments for works from collectors and not paying an artist their share out of those payments is theft, unethical, and wrong. to steal from any artist is wrong; to steal from artists already marginalized further supports and reinforces the oppressive systems we live under and are forced to live with.

collectors: is it your responsibility to ensure an artist gets paid for a work you’ve purchased? no, probably not. but as members of this ecosystem who wield an incredible amount of influence and leverage, is it within your power to help address this issue, especially if you are among those who consider themselves stewards of the works you collect and champions of artists themselves and not just owners? i would argue yes. does it matter to you if you own an artwork that an artist was never paid for? what do you feel when you think about an artist not being compensated? ambivalence? indifference? concern? i offer these as questions to ask yourself and consider where maybe you can use the power you have in service of others who don’t have the same privileges as you. 

lastly, as reports around the gallery being put under administration and having financial difficulties are made, i sincerely hope that the full picture and story are not obscured because it is not only the creditors and banks who are owed debts. there are multiple artists who are owed as well and who have sustained losses. is there concern for them that can go beyond just “sorrows, sorrows, prayers”? 

after all, the art world is nothing without the artists who create the art in the first place, right?