Miami Art Basel 2006 was BadGalleries first Public Apperance. Here the Editor puts posters up late at night in the belly of the beast, Miami's Design Destrict before the big gathering.

Established Jan 2007.

Bad Galleries is dedicated to all the people who cannot live any other way. They are blessed and cursed with who they are. They live in their studio's or offices and work at odd jobs as the art handlers, the teachers, and whatever creative solution they have imagied for the moment. Parents did everything they could to keep them from a 3rd world life in the land of dreams, and yet they live cloak and dagger in concrete bunkers without running water or heat, with only sometimes a trusty dog. Lovers often charmed by their life come and go, and with them go the promise of daily showers and kitchen luxuries like pancakes and steamed vegetables. They give up everything for what they need to be healthy, a studio practice and a safe place to do it.

This site was not made with Sunday Painters, or "artist's" who make what looks like art they think will get them a dealer. It was made for those without a choice, who have lived other lives and could never, be content. Those with vision and a need to share it. And that deserves respect.

Idealistic. Yes. Romantic...you bet ya. And perhaps that is what is missing form art today. Perhaps that is a part of the reason why it is impossible for artists to gain the stature of a DeKooning ever again. But don't patronize that attitude as stupidity, or even hopeful. It is simply an attempt for something else, as what we have doesn't seem to work.

Disgust with the current system of galleries and how both art and artists are treated fuels this. Art Fairs are atrocious displays of what art shouldn't be. Who thought it would be a good idea to rip the context from an object place it in a room with a million other such rapped ideas, and sell them to people who have never taken even one art, anthropology or philosophy class and are mostly collecting them as a way to potentially fund a beach house a few years down the road and one up there friends. And the dealers seem more concerned with finding the next hip thing, unconcerned with the longevity or quality of voice. Why, because they can sell that, it’s fresh. But young wine is never the best wine; it’s just the quickest sell, especially if you put it in a drink box for convience. Couple that with the fact that artist often will not get paid promptly or at all, or are completely treated as the little dancing monkey of the dealer, or patronized into the bar to play with their little friends while the grown ups do business. Three years later, that artist used up by the system disillusioned and confused sells fish prints in the park on Sunday's and drinks 40's of malt liquor for breakfast.

And Academia is often no better. Often academic galleries are run without budgets, or by student workers who don't have the common sense to actually do the job. It is not fiction to hear that the facilities are so understaffed and cared for that the same beige rug has covered the walls since 1970. So who gets screwed but the artist trying to show there, often finding out way too late and hundreds of shipping dollars later that spackle cannot fix this one. The artist becomes responsible for the cost. Wouldn't it be better if the large supposedly professional institution charged with enabling the next generation of our countries leaders could seem to muster even a morsel of finacial humanity for those who finacially struggle to share their ideas. When did everything become the responsibility of the artist? Shipping, cards even the supposed privilege of the application.... charged to the artist...who I might remind you is living without their own bathroom in a old storage locker in a bad part of town.

Which brings me to vanity galleries. Galleries you can buy yourself into, despite quality of idea or craftsmanship. I have only one thing to say about that. If you have to buy your way in, you don't belong.

That having been said, artists need galleries to show there work and they need people to sell that stuff they make so that they can make more. Because we have galleries, and museums we are not simply crazy homeless people running around with tiny bits of colored mud on our clothes. Galleries are necessary and they can be amazing experiences for everyone envolved. Dealers can come in handy too, when all we want to do is pee in the fireplaces of collectors and have random sex with their sons and daughters. Not only can they sell your stuff so you can make more, they can even make you look respectable and get people to notice your contributions and not your weaknesses. A really good gallery will make your weaknesses seem like strengths.

That is why I started this site. So we can find those galleries that are true and genuine. Those galleries who will treat you with the respect you deserve and who simply don't take advantage of you. As a professional you should and can make a professional and informed judgement.

And finally I asked myself why so many artists get caught up with bad galleries, we all have at least one story of a gallery that you wouldn't send your worst enemy too. WHY DO GALLERIES GET AWAY WITH IT. The answer was simple. Because we let them.

Welcome, my friends to Bad Galleries........ this is all for you.

Creator / Editor

Wendy DesChene
www.wendydeschene.com