Artists and consignments

Artist records give context to inventory. Consignments explain why work is in—or away from—your care and when action is due.

Create an artist record

Open Inventory → Artists → Add Artist. Add the artist's preferred display name first, then a website and concise biography. The full artist record can be enriched as your relationship develops.

Search before adding a new artist. Variations such as initials, accents, married names, and collective names can create duplicates that split inventory and reporting.

Write biographies for readers

A useful public biography is factual and easy to scan. Include the artist's practice, location, selected exhibitions or collections, and relevant education or recognition. Keep private contact and commercial context in internal fields or notes—not in public copy.

Review artist images and biographies with the same publishing care as artwork images. Confirm rights, credits, spelling, and preferred pronouns.

Connect work to the artist

Assign the artist on each artwork record. The relationship powers artist artwork counts, browsing, viewing rooms, websites, and inventory reporting.

Use “Unspecified Artist” only as a temporary migration state. Make resolving it part of catalogue cleanup.

Understand consignment direction

Go to Inventory → Consignments and choose New consignment.

• Incoming means another party has entrusted work to your gallery.
• Outgoing means your gallery has entrusted work to another party.

Choose the type that best explains the purpose, identify the artist or other counterparty, and add a due-back date where appropriate.

Move a consignment through its lifecycle

Consignments can be Draft, Active, Completed, or Cancelled.

Keep a consignment in Draft while terms and work lists are being prepared. Mark it Active when responsibility begins. Complete it only after the work and obligations have been reconciled; cancel it when the arrangement will not proceed.

Attach the correct works

Open the consignment and add each included artwork. Confirm identifiers, condition, location, and ownership against the signed paperwork before activation.

Operational habit: check incoming condition at receipt and outgoing condition before release. The record should help explain what changed and when.

Review overdue returns

The consignment list can be searched by reference, party, or work and filtered by direction, status, and overdue state. Review overdue items at least weekly.

GalleryCamp supports the operating record; it does not replace a signed consignment agreement, insurance documentation, or specialist legal advice. Keep executed documents in your gallery's approved document system and use matching references so they are easy to reconcile.