29 Jul How not to take criticism
There is a reason why most galleries HATE hosting juried shows. I’ve written about it before, but an email exchange this week about a submission to the 9th Annual Coaster Show (which is being juried now) presents the perfect opportunity to showcase the main reason.
Sunday, August 1st is the deadline for submissions to the #CoasterShow. We’ve just started going through them to get ahead of the massive amount of last-minute submissions we’ll get this week. I try to give a fair amount of lead time for artists to send their accepted coasters on time for the exhibition (without it costing them a fortune) because many are not local and quite a few live abroad. So I’ve been sending out acceptance notices as well as rejections for the last week or so.
Here is an exchange about one such submission that did not pass the jury.
You can see for yourself how well it went:
ME (11:02 AM): “Hi ******, These didn’t pass the jury.
There are still a couple of days left to submit something else if you want to.”
HIM (2:55 PM): “No thanks”
THEN five minutes later (3:00 PM): “I’m not going to paint a whole other thing just so you can take 50%. I paint what I like. If you can sell it, then the 50% is yours. That’s how this works.”
NOTE: the Coaster Show this year is an open submission show; so anyone can submit. This is not someone who received a personal invitation to participate. I don’t know this person, nor have I ever shown his work, nor have I (to my knowledge) corresponded with him before this. This was a “cold” submission. So while all are welcome to submit, his submission was technically unsolicited. Against my better judgment (and years of experience), I chose to reply.
ME (3:38 PM): “I wouldn’t normally respond to an email like the one you just sent –as it’s almost assuredly a waste of my time considering your reply to my attempt at inclusivity, but I hope you refrain from a knee-jerk reaction long enough to digest the following, and realize that this really is a bid to help you:
“Never send a reply like that to a gallery, a jury, or even an independent curator. It’s petty; and while it may have generated a few seconds of satisfaction for a bruised ego it ultimately hurts you.
“To be clear, I wasn’t critical of your submission; it just didn’t fit the show. The color values you chose don’t present well online and tend to disappear among the more contrasted pieces on the walls. I’ve shown work like this in prior coaster shows and it doesn’t sell. Not wanting you to feel un-included I offered you the chance to submit different work for a second chance to pass the jury. I was attempting to be gracious and you… were not.
“The only response to feedback from a gallery submission (especially when it encourages you to resubmit) is either “Thank you” or nothing at all. Instead you got shitty about it.
“I’m thick-skinned, but I’m probably not the only gallerist to whom you’ll submit your art in your career –which I hope is long and successful. Just know that it’s not worthwhile to burn bridges over nothing.”
At 4:02 PM he sent this:
Every correspondence like that one is a bummer, and it probably won’t be the only self-righteous response to rejection I get this year. What sucks is that I know other curators who have completely stopped doing juried shows because of the anxiety it causes. We take no joy in writing to someone to let them know that their work isn’t going to be included. That’s why most galleries only notify those who pass the jury. I notify everyone because I empathize with the anxiety of not knowing.
But artists like this guy ruin it for everyone. The price on his submissions (there were two) were $120 SRP. I know that rejection hurts, but was it worth burning a bridge?
Clearly this was an example of lack of impulse control, but people like that also don’t realize that gallery directors know each other and talk shop about who’s easy to work with or not. Gallerists and independent curators frequently work with museums and other institutions as well, so being a jerk can block one from more than just a single group show. In an industry of ever-shrinking opportunity this dude actively chose to make it even smaller for himself.
I will continue undaunted, but I encourage all artists to put colleagues like this on blast.
And also worth repeating: READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!
I’ve spent a lot of time putting together the submission rules. I specify file size and file naming protocol and I can’t tell you how many submission I get with unnamed files that are sized differently than 1000 x 1000 pixels at 72 ppi.
I also had to send back some accepted pieces because the delivered coasters were NOT 4 inches square or tondo with a thickness between 1/16 and 1/8 of an inch thick. If they don’t fit in the Coaster Racks they don’t get displayed. It’s all in the Submission Policy.
Gallery 30 South accepts submissions for the Coaster Show from May to August only.
Click here for the Coaster Show Submission Policy
Click here to Browse the available coasters from last year’s show.