If you know the art world at all, you may be aware that artists have their share of challenges breaking into the biz, but, surprisingly, some of their struggles are with the very galleries they populate.
“Unfortunately, there are some elements of this industry that are unethical and artists are often taken advantage of,” asserts Melanie Prapopoulos, founder of The Contemporary Art Modern Project.
Prapopoulos started her art career in 2000, while living in Greece and exhibiting in the U.S. “It was remarkable how many galleries asked me to pay to exhibit when I was just starting out,” she remembers. Emerging artists may be contacted by galleries who promise the world, then don’t deliver, and Prapopoulos explains that sometimes a gallery will buy an artist’s work, mark it up significantly, then take an egregious cut that leaves the artist with barely any profit. Other galleries may “lose” an artist’s work and never return it or return the piece in damaged condition. Some galleries, she adds, don’t ever pay up for works sold. “Being an artist, I know the business, and I also know I don’t produce art just for the money, so it’s terrible knowing that many artists feel the same way and are being under-represented, overcharged and mistreated,” she says.
With the weight of this injustice on her mind, Prapopoulos decided to take action. During the early Covid lockdowns, she amicably ended her previous art venture and decided to open The CAMP Gallery, using her late father Constantine’s initials (CA) and her own (MP) for the acronym. Her Miami CAMP location opened on April Fool’s Day of 2020 and, just recently, she launched a Westport CAMP Gallery in late September 2021.
“We really wanted to create a business that considers artists above all else,” she says, “and the people that work with me all have the same goals of cleaning up this industry a little.”
