Bruce Lurie Gallery

A reader sent this in – anyone else with feedback / experience?

Bruce Lurie Gallery in Los Angeles — To make a long story short, Bruce and his twin brother expressed interest in my work. A few months later, Bruce called me to say he’d like to present my work in his booth at the Southampton Art Fair on Long Island. However, I’d have to ship my work to the fair, be responsible for shipping it back to me if it didn’t sell AND pay him a $1,000 “booth fee.” And the commission on work sold would still be 50%. This sounded irregular to me, so I contacted a successful gallery owner friend who does a lot of business at art fairs around the country and asked her what she thought. She was adamant that it was one thing for me to ship the work to him, but transporting it to and from the fair should be the gallery’s responsibility and that she’d never, ever, charge an artist a “booth fee.” “It’s our job to cover the overhead,” she said. She added that she didn’t have a high opinion of the Southampton Art Fair anyway — there was another one on Long Island that was better funded and organized and had a better clientele. When I called Bruce and politely told him I’d be willing to participate but not if I had to pay for shipping to and from the fair or a portion of the booth fee, he suddenly transformed from the friendly, ingratiating guy he’d been toward me to curt irritation. Suffice to say, I felt glad that I had not gotten further involved with him.

8 comments
  • Anonymous

    Bruce Lurie sold two of my works and paid me half of a heavily discounted price. When one of the works was damaged, Bruce asked me to go to the client’s hose to repair it. While talking to the client I found out that she paid full retail price for the two pieces. I’ve since talked to a number of artists who showed there and they all said “STAY AWAY”.

  • Anonymous

    Had a similar experience – Lurie asked to see my work, I shipped 2 pieces, had trouble getting them back. He never spoke to me but had his lovely young secretary handle everything. His emails were abrupt and rude. Wouldn’t cooperate with pick up by Fed Ex. Asked me for $ to have someone there to meet the Fed Ex guy even though I was paying for the shipping and return. I finally flew there to get my work and secretary said one was on display in a hotel nearby! Months later and after many emails from me the work was returned. No further comment from Lurie.

  • Anonymous

    Also had trouble getting work back, no communications, and very unhelpful even in terms of meeting Fed Ex for pick up that I was paying for to get work back.

  • Hilary

    I had a similar experience to anonymous. Bruce Lurie took my work to a couple of art fairs, he either wanted me to pay $1000 up front for the art fair fee or spilt the sales 60/40 in his favor. I let him take my work to one fair. I started asking around about the gallery. At the time I was working with 2 different agents both of whom had unfavorable stories about the gallery. One connected me with an artist had a bad experience with the gallery. They told him a piece of his was out on loan, but the painting was never returned to him and he was never paid.. I decided to disengage with the gallery and was met with hostile emails and insults from Bruce Lurie. I was called ungrateful and obnoxious. Months after I left the gallery I got a call from an artist who saw my name on their website. The artist was having issues with the galley and was wondering what my experience had been. The artist said he had not been paid for a piece of his and that he couldn’t get them to return it either.

  • Anonymous

    I had a similar experience to anonymous. Bruce Lurie took my work to a couple of art fairs, he either wanted me to pay $1000 up front for the art fair fee or spilt the sales 60/40 in his favor. I let him take my work to one fair. I started asking around about the gallery. At the time I was working with 2 different agents both of whom had unfavorable stories about the gallery. One connected me with an artist had a bad experience with the gallery. They told him a piece of his was out on loan, but the painting was never returned to him and he was never paid.. I decided to disengage with the gallery and was met with hostile emails and insults from Bruce Lurie. I was called ungrateful and obnoxious. Months after I left the gallery I got a call from an artist who saw my name on their website. The artist was having issues with the galley and was wondering what my experience had been. The artist said he had not been paid for a piece of his and that he couldn’t get them to return it either.

  • Anonymous

    Also had a bad experience with this gallery, but not concerning an art fair. Rude, cheap, had trouble getting my work back that he requested seeing. No communication.

  • Bob Clyatt

    I’ve shown with this gallery for several years and didn’t have this come up as an issue. They may do it with an artist new to the gallery as a way of laying off risk or for someone whose work is not that likely to sell, but for their regular artists this is not their M.O.

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