Consignments - Options & Advice

[jak88]

Would love to get the Board's advice and suggestions on options for consignments.

What galleries handle consignments?

What advice would you give to someone looking to consign a work?

[Note: I'm not there yet, but I am hoping to upgrade my OG collection as time goes on]

[robotoil]

Would love to get the Board's advice and suggestions on options for consignments.

What galleries handle consignments?

What advice would you give to someone looking to consign a work?

[Note: I'm not there yet, but I am hoping to upgrade by OG collection as time goes on]

There are a bunch of places to consign to that work with SF art.

Jonathan Levine Gallery or Carmichael Gallery come to mind. I'm sure there are others.

[comiconart]

Interesting question. I have consigned work with a couple of different galleries over the years, and have had fairly positive experiences with this overall, in that galleries can often reach buyers that don't necessarily read forums, or spend much time shopping for art online, etc. IMO, the biggest benefit to consigning work is the opportunity to shop work to a much larger buyer pool (which can lead to a better sale...but also to a better sales price).

As far as recommendations go, my highest recommendation would have to go to Lauren Gentile (formerly of Irvine Contemporary, and now preparing to open her own gallery over the next month or two). I have sold work through Lauren, and not only did she get a great price for the work in question, but she also placed the art with a collector that I could not have reached, and into a collection that was beneficial to the artist as well. Lauren also asked for a lower commission than most. Five stars.

[Raggadrop]

I've sold through Seth of Carmichael Gallery and, although it can take awhile for things to work out, he has always done right by me.

People also seem to use JLG and Irvine Contemporary.

My 2 cents is that deals on this forum tend to go much smoother and faster than consignments, and certainly compared with private sales or eBAY auctions.

[comiconart]

My understanding is that Irvine Contemporary is closing, and Lauren is filling this void (and perhaps keeping many of these artists as well...?).

I have had a few deals with Seth as well. No complaints there...I'm just not a huge fan of the mass email/spam approach to selling, as I think this can have a negative impact on your piece if it does not sell. It becomes a very visible "failure" in the marketplace, which can negatively impact the desirability of a piece. I'd rather have my work shopped around a bit more quietly than that. This is just personal preference, though.

[Raggadrop]

I agree with you on the negative impact of the piece not selling. I am not on Carmichael's purchasing list, but I have received unsolicited emails from Irvine Contemporary in the past. Their pricing of the pieces was a little unrealistic, but that seems to be more common nowadays and probably had a lot to do with the individual sellers bottom-lines. Anyway, the pieces move themselves when priced properly, especially in light of how Shep/Dan price the works. I've only resold works purchased on the secondary market, so there was far less profit to be made. I wish I had an inside line on the good stuff from primary. A loom canvas at primary (around $35-$37K) sounds much better than one at $48K. With something like that I could not envision a reason to sell anything, but I guess that is another story...

[circa77]

You should also try Justin Giarla at White Walls.