For artists
Work with a house you can see into.
When a gallery runs on The Spine, you have a desk of your own. From there you see where your works are, you are asked before they travel, and nothing is promised to you that isn’t signed.
Your work, still yours.
From your desk you add your works: the image, the year, the size, and the least price you accept. Your portrait and your CV live there too, so you stop sending the same files to every house by email.
Your desk needs no instructions: one sentence, one button, and nothing to get lost in.
If a work is already with another gallery, you say so, and the house sees it before anything moves.
Nothing travels without your yes.
Before a work of yours goes anywhere, you are invited: where it is going, for how long, and on what terms. You read them, and you answer. Your yes is kept as a paper with its date, and you can download it whenever you want.
What you agree with the house is between you and the house. The Spine makes sure you see it before you sign.
Always know where it is.
Your desk shows what is moving and where each work has been. You hear when a work leaves, when it arrives and when its dates change, without having to call anyone.
One letter a day at most, with everything in it. The desk speaks when something is yours to know, and keeps quiet the rest of the time.
Only what is signed is promised.
You are never told a work is insured until the policy exists. Dates you haven’t agreed appear as “to be agreed”, not as a promise.
When a work leaves, its condition is recorded, with photographs; when it comes back, it is recorded again. If something changed on the way, it is on paper.
Your floor stays private.
The least price you accept is yours. The house sees it; the buyer never does, and it never appears in an email. What the work is offered for is the house’s decision, agreed with you on its own terms.
Seen, and credited right.
When the house publishes your work, it appears on its website with its image, its facts and your name, exactly right. The credit line, “Courtesy of…”, comes out the same on the website and on every paper.
Your news and your exhibitions can be told there too, linked to the works they are about.
One conversation per journey.
Each journey has its own thread with the house, and only you and the house are in it. Nothing gets lost in a general inbox, and nobody else reads it.
Your papers come with the house’s letterhead: your terms, your consent, and the answers to the questions artists usually ask.
Your story, kept.
Every loan, every exhibition and every sale is recorded with its date and its paper. Over the years that becomes the history of each work, and part of what it is worth.
And if the house uses AI to phrase its sentences, your name never leaves its server: the model only ever sees “an artist”.
Everything an artist gets.
A desk of your own, open on any screen, with no software to install.
- Your worksImages, facts and texts, added once and kept up to date.
- Your portrait and CVIn one place, ready for every house that asks.
- InvitationsWhere, when and on what terms, before anything moves.
- Your yesKept as a dated paper you can download.
- What is movingEach work, where it is right now.
- Where it has beenEvery journey, with its dates and its papers.
- LettersWhen a work leaves, arrives or changes dates. One a day at most.
- ThreadsOne conversation per journey, between you and the house.
- Your papersTerms, consent and answers, on the house’s letterhead.
- Your floorThe least price you accept, seen only by the house.
- Your creditYour name and “Courtesy of…”, right everywhere.
- Your recordEvery loan, exhibition and sale, with its paper.
The Spine is installed by the houses that work with artists: galleries, studios, foundations. If yours doesn’t use it yet, tell them about it, or talk to us.