Painters are angry: 1er January, the HangArt Gallery closed its doors on rue Saint-Paul in Old Montreal. In Quebec, the rue Saint-Jean branch is inaccessible. The paintings — more than a thousand works, according to the online inventory — are stacked behind locked locks. The gallery offered an unusual business model: artists paid to be exhibited there. They are now seeking to recover their works, fearing not being able to recover the money invested for the coming months or that of their paintings which have been sold.
“How can they run out of money? asks the painter Maxime Gagnon Bergeron. Let’s say their rent is $15,000 per month. As an artist, I pay $25 per month per work to be in their gallery. » At least 1000 works are on the HangArt Internet directory. A potential income of $25,000 per month, before any painting sales.
At the beginning of the year, the lock of the HangArt in Montreal was changed by the owner, the latter confirmed, for non-payment of rent. The co-owners of HangArt, Hervé Garcia and Julie Plouffe, have not paid any rent to date for this premises which they have occupied since 1er last September.
Some artists learned of the closure through an email Mr. Garcia sent on Jan. 2, saying the owner “decided to change the locks, thereby denying us access. Still, for the moment, we do not have access to any works. »
Others learned of the news from the “Temporary Closure” notice on the website. Those who called the Quebec gallery came across a song: “ On a scale on one to ten my friend / You’re fucked / In lack of other words / I’d say you’re fucked… »
“We are a company like so many others which is collapsing in a difficult economic climate,” HangArt responded without signature to our email. We are in corporate and personal bankruptcy. The works will be returned in the coming days and all this will no longer exist. Fifteen years of hard work, a retirement plan and life savings lost. You will write hundreds of stories like mine in the coming months. »
Unregistered bankruptcies
Julie Plouffe, administrator, presented as a “talent scout”, who contacted artists after seeing their work on Instagram, responded for her part that “HangArt is closing due to personal bankruptcies. Hervé and I gave everything to keep the gallery open despite a disastrous economic situation.”
No bankruptcy, neither commercial nor personal, in the name of Hervé Garcia, Julie Plouffe or the HangArt Gallery appeared in the register of the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy at the time these lines were written.
Sophie Couture, director of HangArt in Quebec, declared that “the situation in Quebec is not the same. The artists will collect their canvases in the coming weeks, they have received a message with instructions. The Quebec gallery must close because of Montreal, their mismanagement.”
The duty interviewed around ten creators exhibited at HangArt, and received ten other spontaneous testimonies by email. Artists are angry at the way the closure is happening, the tone and the inconsistencies in the messages they receive from the gallery.
They are shocked at not knowing how to get their works back, at realizing that many of them have never received their share of the paintings sold, at realizing that the money they invested to be exhibited is probably irrecoverable, to learn that the gallery’s ways of doing things are unusual.
Reverse risks
In Quebec, since the 1980s, the vast majority of contemporary art galleries have adopted a deposit system, as explained by Paul Maréchal, lecturer at the University of Quebec in Montreal and specialist in the art market. art.
According to this system, the gallery owner chooses works by the artist, by contract, which he exhibits. If the works are sold, he takes a 50% commission for the work of emerging artists — the vast majority of those exhibited.
At HangArt, the risks are reversed. Artists subscribe to a package, for example the Starter: for $30 per canvas per month, their works can be found in the gallery and on the website. In the event of a sale, HangArt retains a 30% commission.
Vanessa Vaillant, self-taught who took up painting in 2009, chose the monthly package in 2021. She then sold seven small formats at $240. “I had a return on my investment. » The painter was stunned by this departure.
In November 2022, Mme Vaillant was invited to invest in the gallery. An offer that Nancy Vincent also received at the end of last month. In exchange for preferred shares, we propose by email, “HangArt will exhibit your works at no cost… for life,” we read. “The commission rate will be maintained at 30% for life. You will share the profits made with other artists up to your percentage of shares. »
Three types of “convertible notes” are offered. For an investment of $20,000, a profit share of 2%. For $10,000, 1% profit. For $5000, 0.5%. Vanessa Vaillant invested $5,000. “It allowed me to exhibit more works. I sent them my entire inventory: 32 paintings, she said with emotion. I don’t know where they are today. »
Fanny Auclair also accepted the proposal for an investment of $5,000 in the fall of 2022. “I never heard anything again after I gave my check,” she says. She then sold eight paintings. She did not receive payment for two of them.
Ways to close
Relaunched, HangArt responds: “As long as business was going well, our model satisfied everyone. Clients who discovered talented emerging artists. The artists were happy and proud to be at HangArt. Only recession, inflation, strikes, the end of COVID, loans added to the disappearance of our customer class make the situation what it is. »
“It’s not unusual for a gallery to close,” explains Simone Rochon, interim director of the Association of Contemporary Art Galleries. “La Galerie.a has just announced its closure. We have known it for six months, the artists too. The inventory was managed, as were the contracts. The Bernard gallery also closed this year [le 30 septembre 2023] after a three-month process. »
According to the Regroupement des Artistes en Arts Visuals (RAAV) of Quebec, “it is not at all a common practice to ask an artist to participate in the ownership of a gallery. » The association invites all artists who feel wronged by HangArt, whether they are members of the RAAV or not, to communicate.
At the time this text was delivered, the owner of the building on rue Saint-Paul specified that he had received “the inventory of works secured at HangArt, which will allow them to begin to be delivered to artists from next week”. For its part, the HangArt Gallery had limited access to its website, previously public, to password holders.
With Améli Pineda