Can an art consignment agreement be terminated by the artist if the gallery fails to sell the artwork within a specified time period?

I am an emerging artist who recently entered into an art consignment agreement with a gallery to exhibit and sell my artwork. The agreement states that the gallery will have exclusive rights to sell my artwork for a period of one year. However, it has been six months since the agreement was signed and the gallery has not sold any of my artwork. I am concerned about the lack of sales and wonder if I have the right to terminate the agreement and seek representation elsewhere, or if I am bound by the terms of the agreement for the full year.

David U.

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It really depends on the wording of your contract. From your note it sounds as if you have an enforceable contract (offer, acceptance, consideration, and it is legal). Unless you negotiated sales benchmarks/cutoffs, you may be stuck for the rest of the term. A possible approach might be for you to begin discussing next year and requiring sales thresholds in return for extending the contract. Before that, you may want to ask them to cancel the contract early since they haven't been able to achieve any sales. They may agree to that - you never know.