Ever heard of vanity publishing? It's just about the saddest thing you can do if you're a writer, self-publish and then try and sell a few of the thousands of copies you've paid a small fortune to be printed to your parents, friends, and any poor unsuspecting stranger you might manage to accost. Well the same thing goes for vanity galleries, essentially you pay a few grand to have your work hung at a prestigious address in some cosmopolitan city or other and fingers crossed someone somewhere might accidentally stumble across your work and spill their credit card. Of course they even offer promotional add-ons, marketing in the local papers which if they were any good would be free, it's called PR, but no one who's into scamming the creative community would understand that. Not unless it's self-promotional, vis-a-vis selling their own crap to poor unsuspecting artists.
Well it seems that life, all be it for artists, has hit an all-time low. After asking for over six months to be removed from the mailing list of the arts scam site at www.neopoprealismstarz.com
They have finally relented with these passing words… "Haha, we didn't see your name in NY Times yet or in MOMA, as other participants but you already so high!!" I'd like to see how many artists these scammers have managed to get into MOMA, I'm guessing, erm… none?
Let me warn all of you, don't touch this site, don't pass them a single dime, they are the grubbiest, filthiest, crappiest scammers that have dragged themselves out of the gutter in an aeon. First off they lie, incessantly, they don't even allow you to contact them properly, they use a PO BOX address and if you do ever manage to track down a phone number I bet my bottom dollar you will be greeted by a cheesy answering machine.
The judges are never named, I'm guessing it's just the scammers and their junkie whore friends pulling names out of a hat judging by the state of the winners. The prizes are totally inflated, most seem to be ugly ceramics manufactured by artists of the least recognition and priced exorbitantly to pull in the punters. What's more, they charge money for every contest, they charge artists for an online contest? Yep. There's no excuses there, no way of blaming it on shipping and handling, storage, or man hours, I mean does anyone pay you to browse through Flickr? They make money for nothing, and to rub even more salt into the wound, they even spam their past contestants who've fell for the lure of their fake contests with a chance of being featured in one of their god awful publications.
Yes, NeoPopRealism Starz actually operate a double-scam, first a 'virtual vanity gallery' and then when you thought things couldn't get any worse, a 'virtual vanity publishers', two bum deals for the price of one. Well no, the bills just keep pouring in as a matter of fact, they pretend to make cut-price deals all the way through their flood of hyped spam, insisting they can only spare each artist a few copies, and if you pay now you'll be one of the 'lucky' ones. If there's one site I had to choose to die, one online venture that makes me sick to the gut, it would be NeoPopRealismStarz.com, filled with greedy vermin taking advantage of artists around the world to line their pockets, with no taste or understanding of the arts, humanity, or simply fair play, they truly deserve to rot in their self-made hole of oblivion for a few millennia.
Whatever you do don't go near them, don't talk to them, and never ever pay them. They are the most vile of all arts scammers, and they never stop lying.
Hmmph! I so hate all scammers! Why can’t they just leave innocent people alone and try some honest work for a change? Idiots!
Hi Paul
Glad I read your blog. I was contacted by these scammers recently. Hadn’t decided whether to get involved. But now I’ve read this I won’t go near them with a barge pole!!! Thanks for the warning.
Hate scammers too!
Cheers
Dave
No probs Dave. Basically avoid anyone who charges to show your art. Goes the same for galleries, books, you name it.