The nice organiser I usually exhibit with has another regular exhibitor - a designer who had supposedly worked in the past with (very distantly) one of the international designers markled by Smegs. Long story short, she's a grifty
witch - happy to exploit our hired helper without even asking us or thanking him, much less paying him, is always rude to us and makes faces at us and spreads rumours about us. Or at least she did until she realised that I am connected to a couple of the most prominent families in the city, and that journalists are my own tribe.
So anyway, she recently started posting about a lot of events that she was organising. One of them at my former bad retailer's newly-reopened premises (it was inevitable, although I'd love to know exactly how much they paid to get the closure orders overturned). Fast-forward a few weeks, another artist who had colluded with the bad retailer to cheat me and also exhibits with us posted about another established artist (let's call her Brushes).
Now, Brushes had signed up to participate in one of Designer's events, who had promised her certain facilities at the event, and also assured Brushes that she could get a refund on the fee in case she couldn't go (Brushes has a chronic illness). Ultimately, Brushes couldn't go and informed Designer, who not only refused to refund the money, but also continued to advertise that Brushes would offer a free workshop on the day (Brushes hadn't offered to do that at all - paid workshops are her main source of income). It was basically the main attraction of the event. So eventually, people turned up and were pissed because there was no workshop, and Brushes was both out of money and suffered loss of reputation. On top of that, Designer promised a few people that Brushes would give them free artwork, but didn't inform Brushes, who quoted her usual prices. Then Designer, who knew she was very sick at the time, called and screamed at Brushes for charging her clients.
Brushes' business will survive, but she's a wreck right now. As for Designer, people like her can always find a new crowd to grift off/within. Unregulated business/verbal contracts so no real legal recourse is available.
While I was typing this, apparently more artists came forward and said they'd signed up to participate in one of Designer's events, she told them it had been cancelled (it wasn't) and refused to refund as promised.
We're enjoying the show