Jackson Pollock’s estate to be represented by Kasmin. https://ift.tt/Zc2YlFv

Kasmin now exclusively represents the estate of pioneering Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock through the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Pollock’s late wife, the painter Lee Krasner, has been represented by the gallery since 2016. According to Kasmin, this move will bring Pollock’s and Krasner’s works under the stewardship of a single gallery for the first time in half a century.

“To unite Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock under the same gallery roof once again, and to be able to further strengthen the mission of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, is truly an honor,” said Eric Gleason, head of sales at Kasmin.

This October, Kasmin will highlight a critical period in Pollock’s career by showcasing a selection of his early drawings, made between 1939 and 1943, at Frieze Masters in London. These works on paper, characterized by rapid markmaking in multicolored pencil and crayon, are a key precedent for Pollock’s signature “drip” painting technique.

Additionally, the Musée National Picasso in Paris is set to open “Jackson Pollock: The Early Years, 1934–1947” on October 15th. This major exhibition—Pollock’s first in France since 2008—will present more than 100 works that focus on his early influences. Key works will be on loan from institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

“The forthcoming presentations of Pollock’s work offer a profound window into the artist’s early psyche as he processed the unconscious imagery that would go on to drive one of the greatest creative breakthroughs of the 20th century,” said Nick Olney, president of Kasmin.

Meanwhile, Kasmin has spent the last eight years establishing Krasner’s legacy and market position, mounting four solo exhibitions since she joined the gallery roster. While the gallery has showcased her well-known gestural abstract paintings from the 1950s and ’60s, it also highlighted her earlier geometric abstractions in a solo show that opened in February 2024. The gallery played a key role in supporting a major Krasner retrospective in Europe, “Living Colour,” which first opened at the Barbican in May 2019.

“The significance of Jackson Pollock’s contributions to the art historical canon cannot be overstated, and we look forward to Kasmin’s support in continuing to share his legacy with the world—in concert with our collective championing of the work and legacy of Lee Krasner,” said Ronald D. Spencer, chairman and CEO of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

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How Glitzy Parties Became the Ultimate Art World Currency https://ift.tt/TECA1Iz

As the clock ticked into the early hours of Wednesday morning this June, things were only just heating up at the grand Elisabethenkirche in Basel. Neon lights and DJ Pedro Winter’s booming beats were washing the ornate stained-glass windows and the winged angel busts. The 19th-century Gothic Revival–style church was home to Perrotin’s annual Art Basel party, where the eager huddle cared little about the ungodly hour or impending early morning calls.

The Parisian gallery’s soirée—which operated on a strict QR-coded invitation policy—hosted around 600 guests inside the holy temple. A few blocks away, another international powerhouse, Thaddaeus Ropac, had just wrapped up its traditional dinner at the glitzy second floor of the local favorite Safran Zunft, which toasted a congregation of the global art world’s who’s who.

From Miami to Seoul, Brussels to Hong Kong—wherever collectors, dealers, curators, advisors, and everyone in between lands to shop and talk art—parties are a fundamental fixture of the international art world. Conversations that start at booths or galleries often continue at multi-course seated dinners and martini-soaked festivities.

But these events are more than just casual chin-wags. For both collectors and dealers alike, the parties are a part of the market’s social contract: The dealer signals appreciation and acknowledgment to their clientele, while for the collector, the velvet rope is lifted to a hip circle of the art world’s elite.

Inside the art world party circuit

Parties in the art world are commonplace and varied. A key to standing out on a competitive night is to buy out a gilded institution where scoring a table on even a regular night serves a challenge: Think White Cube’s Frieze New York party earlier this year at Bemelmans Bar, where the wait time on a normal evening is optimistically an hour. Or, why not collaborate with an art world favorite locale from another continent to blend different vibes? For its Art Basel Miami Beach bash last year, Gagosian married Miami with the Mediterranean by joining forces with Positano’s place-to-be spot Le Sirenuse for a dinner themed around the iconic hotel’s blue-washed Franco’s Bar.

Galleries occasionally plan their events with a specific locale, such as White Cube’s Soho Beach House parties during Art Basel Miami Beach, or Perrotin’s annual Basel bash, held this year at the church. Buzzy establishments in major fair cities also evolve into industry musts, such as Ladder Shed in Chiltern Firehouse during Frieze London, Miami’s Euro-chic members-only club Casa Tua in the first week of December, or Armory Week favorite Frenchette. Even certain signature foods usher in familiarity and expectation among invitees. Lehmann Maupin partner Carla Camacho says the barbecue receptions at the gallery’s Seoul space on Hannam Night during Frieze Week have “become a tradition and a must-attend event on people’s itinerary.”

She added: “Every city has its own history and traditions, so you want to understand those and integrate them into the vision for the event.”

In rare and serendipitous occasions, the artists themselves lead their own festivity. Brazilian twin artists OSGEMEOS DJed at NoHo’s sceney establishment ACME to celebrate their Lehmann Maupin show. “Music is a major influence in their practice, so it also offered a very unique experience for our guests,” Camacho explained.

Partying with purpose

Glasses are raised for a plethora of occasions: a hot talent’s pre-sold solo booth, a knockout grouping out of the gallery roster, or a represented artist’s long-awaited solo at a local museum.

The immediate purpose of orchestrating a potpourri of industry players at a hefty bill might seem opaque from the outside, but a lauded bash can help to make a gallery more than just next day’s talk of the town.

Unlike an instantly sales-forward art fair atmosphere, the after-hours affairs hold a breezier veneer where placement talks blend with vacation plans and dating advice. “You have a window of time to catch up with colleagues and clients and generate new opportunities for your artists,” said Kasmin’s director of communications Molly Taylor, who oversees around 35 events annually for the New York gallery. “It always starts with our goals and objectives for the artists and the brand,” added Camacho.

“There’s a momentum and concentration of energy during the fair weeks that is distinct from other periods in the art world calendar,” said Taylor. “Everyone’s light is on—it leads to a lot of productive, creative conversations and the initiation of future projects.”

After a tolling marathon of sales and networking, the industry players often decompress at gatherings that also promise unexpected connections and deal closures. For New York– and Europe-based art advisor Ludovica Capobianco, the potential to expand her network is part of the charm. “I only have time to meet my clients and visit the works we put holds on during the fair,” she told Artsy. “The parties are great for starting conversations and meeting potential clients when everybody is relaxed.”

BASQUIAT Dancing at The Mudd Club, 1979 (Basquiat photograph), Printed later
Nicholas Taylor, Jean-Michel Basquiat
Lot 180 Gallery

Rubbing shoulders with industry figures from across the globe are also valuable touchpoints during packed art fair weeks. While a gallery director’s daytime is reserved for promoting the booth to their mainly existing network, they are perhaps more likely to exchange emails with their tablemates and new faces over negronis. Cocktail hour can also help them finalize an acquisition with a regular client that may have started earlier at the booth.

“Events during art fairs present a rare opportunity when all the key players from around the world are in the same place at the same time, and that’s something we want to capitalize on, especially since we don’t always get to see them,” said Camacho. She considers them “essential tools for nurturing existing relationships and cultivating new ones.”

For Taylor, organizing events in different cities for a gallery with a singular location also means catching up with local friends of the gallery: “In another country or city, we prioritize connecting with our local collectors, as well as curators and museum directors that we have built strong relationships and friendships with over many years of participating in the fair.”

Wining, dining, and dealing

Dinner Table, Provincetown, Massachusetts , 1983
Joel Meyerowitz
Huxley-Parlour

Gallery dinners, which commonly come with a larger bill for the organizer, usually have a rather more clear purpose than a party, which may simply aim to celebrate a booth. Two years ago in Miami, Hauser & Wirth partnered with MOCA Los Angeles, where Henry Taylor had an ongoing exhibition, to take over the South Beach outpost of arguably New York’s most famous Italian restaurant, Carbone. The crowd to savor the iconic spicy rigatoni included Venus Williams.

Capobianco enjoys an intimate dinner’s credibility quality, which helps create a closer bond: “Attending an exclusive event sends a certain message and puts everyone invited into the same category, which makes starting conversations easier than daytime,” she said. These types of events, therefore, play a key role in cultivating a gallery’s image for the evening. “Generally, we have found that seated dinners are much more beneficial for making meaningful connections with our clients since this format allows for more in-depth conversations,” Camacho noted.

Intricacy is essential, whether in compiling a succinct guest list, perfecting the seating chart, or crafting the menu. “You have to be as ambitious and thoughtful about an eight-person dinner as you are with a 200-plus-person party,” Taylor said. She admitted to “get a kick out of the complex orchestration and matchmaking of a seated dinner,” but added that each celebration largely caters for the celebrated honoree’s vision for the night. Camacho agreed: “Each event is different—we have a very strategic, tailored approach for each one.”

Capobianco thinks seated affairs are ideal for establishing deeper connections. “People generally hang out with people they already know at large parties and conversations happen at passing,” she said. “But sitting together with someone for two hours leads to something more meaningful.” She also thinks tables without name tags eliminate the industry hierarchy and encourage guests to initiate “more effortless” dialogues.

Exclusive but not inaccessible

Beatrice Wood and Marcel Duchamp at the Opening Reception, Duchamp Retrospective, Pasadena Art Museum, 1963
Julian Wasser
Robert Berman Gallery

Ed Ruscha and Patty Callahan at the Opening Reception, Duchamp Retrospective, Pasadena Art Museum, 1963
Julian Wasser
Robert Berman Gallery

A hard-door policy is not uncommon during wildly attended extravaganzas such as the Venice Biennale or Art Basel in Switzerland, where the number of parties per person can fall slim due to the massive number of visitors and limited venue opportunities.

Seated dinners are inherently more exclusive, and the guest list is strategically crafted between interested collectors, devoted advisors, and select friends. It is not uncommon, however, for galleries to throw parties in which the RSVP link is passed generously around group chats. The key is still to ask around and eventually try the door for a 50/50 gamble. Once inside, though, brave yourself for the combative line for the open bar—why not?—then, turn your free time into gold by networking with your linemates.

And finally, as for the perennial question of whether American or European galleries have better chops in organizing an unforgettable night, Capobianco offers a diplomatic answer: “Europeans are better at dinners because we like to create that effortless cozy vibe, but Americans do throw the best parties.”

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How Interest Rates Impact the Art Market https://ift.tt/fixLNuV

Earlier this month, the U.S. Federal Reserve made the decision to cut interest rates by 0.5%. This cut is the first since the early onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It means that the base rate—what the Fed charges banks to borrow money—now sits between 4.75% and 5%.

This change, which follows similar moves from other central banks such as the Bank of England, is expected to have an impact on everything from credit cards to mortgages and will have a ripple effect on the global economy.

The art market, which tends to thrive in lower interest rate environments, is likely to be impacted. Here, we explain the basics of interest rates and how they impact the art market.

What are interest rates?

Simply put, interest rates are the cost of loaning money or the return on investing money, expressed as a percentage. When taking out a loan, a lender will offer a rate that is charged as compensation for supplying the funds. For example, if you take out a loan of $1,000 with an annual interest rate of 5%, you’d pay back $50 in interest over one year.

When investing or depositing money in a savings account, interest is earned as compensation from the bank where it is held. So, for example, if you deposit $1,000 in an account with a 5% annual interest rate, you will earn $50 in interest after a year.

The main factor influencing interest rates is central bank policy. Central banks—such as the Federal Reserve in the U.S., the Bank of England in the U.K., and the European Central Bank in the E.U.—set what is called a base rate for their jurisdictions. These rates act as a benchmark for the cost of borrowing money between commercial banks and have a direct impact on the fees that these institutions charge their customers.

A higher base rate makes it more expensive for banks to borrow money, which is passed on to the consumer. A lower base rate, meanwhile, makes the cost of loans cheaper, encouraging investment and spending.

The setting of interest rates is primarily influenced by inflation. When interest rates are high, people and businesses are more likely to spend and invest less, because it is more expensive to borrow money. This leads to a slowing of demand and therefore a deceleration of price rises, which lowers inflation. When interest rates are lower, money is cheaper to borrow and economic activity is stimulated, increasing investment and spending. But this can lead to an increase in demand, which, in turn, can lead to a rise in prices, causing an uptick in inflation.

Interest rates have fluctuated heavily in recent years. Rates were slashed to historical lows in the early 2020s—as low as 0.25% in the U.S.—to stimulate economic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, around 2022, inflation reached the highest levels in decades. This was caused in part by disruptions to supply chains and geopolitical events such as the war in Ukraine. Higher rates followed and by May 2023, the Federal Reserve had raised rates to 5–5.25%.

How do high interest rates affect the art market?

Untitled, 2022
Egle Karpaviciute
The Rooster Gallery

The art market has an intricate relationship with interest rates.

Higher interest rates, such as those seen in recent years, can cause the art market to stiffen. In other words, because higher rates make it more expensive to borrow money, the liquidity of and spending on luxury goods such as art can become constrained.

“The current cost of capital being so high makes it much less attractive to borrow for acquisition purposes unless our client believes that the opportunity on the purchase is so tremendous that they can’t ignore doing it,” said Jim Carona, director of the Palm Desert–founded gallery Heather James Fine Art.

Art is classified as a non-liquid asset, meaning that it doesn’t generate instant cashflow. This increases the risk of investing in art during a period of high interest rates when assets with more stable returns—such as government bonds—are favored. During high interest rate periods, many collectors can also find themselves less liquid, said Drew Watson, head of art services at Bank of America. He noted that in recent high interest rate years, some buyers “could not participate in the market to the extent they had previously, resulting in less depth of bidding and lower prices.”

This impacts the sell side of the market, too. Collectors become less likely to put works up for sale because they view the market as less favorable, and worry about the ability to sell their work for a strong price, such as in recent high interest rate periods. “Sellers are less willing to bring large single-owner collections and trophy works to market unless they have to,” said Watson.

The effects of high interest rates can be seen at the top end of the auction market, where inventory with estimates in the six figures and above is typically consigned. In high interest rate periods, those top lots are less likely to go to auction. Last year, for instance, the top 100 lots at auction totaled $2.4 billion, which was a steep decline from $4.1 billion in 2022, when interest rates were at record lows at the start of the year.

That being said, art is often viewed as a hedge against high inflation because it is perceived as having a long-term store of value. When demand can soften as a result of lower liquidity and higher rates, collectors can take advantage of lower artwork prices. From an investment perspective, this is often viewed as an attractive long-term play, where these works can accrue value over time.

How do low interest rates affect the art market?

Stop fighting. Just buy III, 2020
Egle Karpaviciute
The Rooster Gallery

In a lower interest rate environment, borrowing money becomes cheaper and can boost liquidity in the art market. “When interest rates were near 0%, our wealthiest clients could borrow for less than 1%, either using their existing art collection as collateral or using the funds for new acquisitions,” said Carona. “At that time, there was a tremendous amount of liquidity being pumped into the system.”

Low interest rates also create what is known as the “wealth effect.” This comes about when lower rates lead to an increase in the value of assets such as stocks and real estate, resulting in higher spending on luxury goods such as art. Many collectors are influenced by the gains in their financial portfolios that can be seen during these periods. “Buyers have more liquidity to bid for major lots, thereby increasing competitive bidding and realized prices,” said Watson.

Low interest rates have also historically increased the demand for alternative investments like art, which is another factor leading to increased demand and rising prices. Sellers are more likely to take advantage of this environment, adding to the liquidity in the market. “Auction houses have more capital to coax more trophy works and major collections to market with guarantees,” said Watson. “Sellers see greater depth of bidding and feel more confident bringing more high-value supply to market.”

Carona points to the low interest rate environment of 2020–2022 as an example of this. “The market was being flooded by liquidity from the Federal Reserve, and at the same time interest rates were essentially zero,” he said. “This was the catalyst for the incredible run-up we saw in art prices across the board, but most prominently in young artists under 45 years of age.”

Auction performance can mirror the public picture of what many galleries also notice privately during low interest rate periods: that collectors are more liquid, and spend with increased confidence. These factors can also lead to a shorter sales cycle, noted James Ward, director of London’s JC Gallery. “The thing I notice most is the length of conversion time for a sale,” he said. “A greater depth of thinking time is taken when the interest rates are higher. Once rates are cut, there’s an underlying positivity in purchasing.”

Are interest rates influencing art collectors?

Dollar Sign (FS II.274), 1982
Andy Warhol
Revolver Gallery

Dollar Sign Painting, 1981
Andy Warhol
Revolver Gallery

The art market, like any high-value market, is undoubtedly impacted by interest rates. But it does not simply grind to a halt or run red hot as a result of their fluctuations. After all, collectors purchase art for a variety of reasons beyond financial gain or asset appreciation.

Some collectors are not affected at all. The purchasing power of the ultra-rich, who dominate the top end of the market, is barely dented, for example. “For the mid-high level of active art market collectors, interest rates have a minor impact on their decision whether or not to buy,” noted Ward.

Artworks at the top levels of the market are also less affected because they are rare and sought after, irrespective of the economic environment. For example, in the summer auction season of 2023, with interest rates at 5% in the U.K., Gustav Klimt’s Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) (1917) sold for a record price of £85.3 million ($106.76 million).

No matter the weather, for the most coveted artworks, a bidder can almost always be found.

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Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Amy Sherald, and others donate works to “Artists for Kamala” sale. https://ift.tt/qiX7a90

As the 2024 U.S. presidential election approaches on November 5th, more than 160 artists have donated works to “Artists for Kamala” an online-only art fundraiser with proceeds going directly to the Harris Victory Fund and Democrats across the country. Running from September 30 to October 8, 2024, the benefit sale will feature works ranging in price from $250 for prints to major works with estimates in the six figure–range by leading artists including Jeff Koons and Jenny Holzer.

Works from over 50 renowned artists will be featured in an online auction and sale on Artsy, including pieces by Koons and Holzer, as well as Amy Sherald, Betye Saar, Catherine Opie, George Condo, Hank Willis Thomas, Rashid Johnson, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Simone Leigh, Kay WalkingStick, and Shepard Fairey, among others. The Artsy portion alone is expected to raise over $1 million.

“Art has always been a powerful way to express one’s vision and ideals and to mobilize people into action,” said Harris for President campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in a statement. “The artworks in the ‘Artists for Kamala’ collection do so brilliantly. We are so grateful to the art community for using their creativity, trusted voices, and powerful work to support Vice President Harris’s campaign to turn the page on hate and division, and move our country forward.”

Highlights from “Artists for Kamala” include:

• Holzer’s Selection from Truisms: There are too few… (2023), a granite bench engraved with one of the artist’s signature, bitingly candid proclamations. The blue stone is engraved with the phrase “There are too few immutable truths today,” one of Holzer’s iconic “Truisms.” The piece has an estimate of $200,000.
• Sherald’s As soft as she is…, (2023), a striking 70-color screenprint featuring a woman in a striking ensemble gazing directly at the viewer. The spare, elegant portrayal, with shocks of color and skin portrayed in shades of gray, is evocative of Sherald’s best known work, a portrayal of former first lady Michelle Obama. This piece, from a limited edition of 35, has an estimate of $50,000.
• Koons’s American Flagpole (Gazing Balls) (2024), a huge 25-foot American flag with three of his typical 12-inch gazing balls at its base, in red, white, and blue. An edition of one plus one artist’s proof, the new work has an estimate of $300,000.
• Thomas’s Fragile, Democracy, Handle with Care (2024), a limited-edition silkscreen from an edition of 50 unique variations which riffs on familiar “handle with care” stickers to urge for the protection of democratic rights. The bold, cobalt blue piece has an estimate of $10,000.

Since Vice President Harris was announced as the Democratic nominee in late July, numerous artists, including Carrie Mae Weems and Shepard Fairey, have shown public support, alongside major art patrons like Agnes Gund.

Gund is also part of the Artists for Kamala advisory board, alongside fellow philanthropists, artists, collectors, and art world professionals, including Stephanie Robinson, Sarah Arison, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and Komal Shah, among others.

The Artists for Kamala sale and auction on Artsy will launch at 4 p.m. EDT on September 30th, ahead of a Harris Victory Fund event in New York that evening. Lots will begin to close on October 8th at 3 p.m. EDT.

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Pace Gallery will represent Li Hei Di, now the youngest artist on its roster. https://ift.tt/ZR2TpgD

Pace Gallery has announced its representation of Li Hei Di, a young artist whose paintings combine figuration and abstraction to explore themes of embodiment, intimacy, and displacement. Li, who was born in 1997, will now be the youngest artist on the mega-gallery’s roster. They will be represented jointly by Pace, Michael Kohn Gallery, and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery.

This move by Pace is the latest in a string of major galleries signing rising talents from the younger generation. Earlier this month, Sasha Gordon became the youngest artist to join the roster of David Zwirner and will be represented in partnership with her longtime gallery, Matthew Brown. Additionally, Hauser & Wirth recently announced that it will represent Michaela Yearwood-Dan, in collaboration with New York’s Marianne Boesky Gallery. And just yesterday, White Cube announced that it would represent Alia Ahmad, the first artist from the Arab Gulf region to join the gallery.

Of Mercy to Shelter and Shield, 2024
Li Hei Di
Michael Kohn Gallery

Li was recently featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2023–2024, an annual feature that identifies early-career artists poised to shape contemporary art’s future. Gordon was also featured in the list, as was Yearwood-Dan (both in 2022).

Li’s first significant appearance with Pace will come this December, when a new painting by the artist will be featured at the gallery’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach. Moreover, their first solo exhibition with Pace is slated for spring 2025 in Hong Kong. Joshua Friedman, Senior Director at Pace Los Angeles, has worked closely with the artist since his time at Michael Kohn Gallery. He will continue to lead the gallery’s representation of Li.

Featuring contrasting palettes, translucent figures and layered compositions, Li’s work explores narratives around gender and desire. Pace’s President, Samanthe Rubell, pointed to Li’s ability to merge abstraction with explorations of gender fluidity, noting that this combination has made Li one of the most compelling young painters working today. “Their incredible technical skill, rigorous investigations of sex and gender, and morphing of languid figures into luminous abstractions have made them one of the most inventive young painters working today,” she said.

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8 Standout Artists at the Gwangju Biennale 2024 https://ift.tt/3MOW8n5

As an art event, the Gwangju Biennale has a unique remit: to commemorate the horrific tragedy of the violently suppressed student-led uprising that took place in the city in May 1980. But for the 2024 Gwangju Biennale, unlike previous editions, this legacy was less of a central focus. Directed by French curator Nicolas Bourriaud, the event, mainly located in Gwangju’s Biennale Hall, instead is based on the idea of pansori, a Korean folk musical tradition whose name translates to “noise from the public space.” This theme brings together works from 72 artists to create a “soundscape of the 21st century,” according to the exhibition’s tagline. In sharp contrast with this year’s Venice Biennale, all of the participants are living.

Sound, as one might expect, features prominently in the show. Noel W. Anderson, for instance, cleverly splices James Brown songs into a supercut of the singer’s grunts and vocalizations, echoing through the exhibition’s stairway in a meditation on Black masculinity. Many of the works on view explore oppression and marginalization: issues, according to the curatorial framework, of taking up, and making noise, in public space. Climate change also features prominently in the artworks’ themes. The soundscape of the current moment, according to this show, is a lamentation for a world in crisis.

Elsewhere, in the various satellite pavilions spread across the city and running outside of the main show’s curatorial framework, some artists have taken on the mantle of the city’s history of political dissent. At the CDA Holon pavilion, a troupe of university student performers will march to the city’s Democracy Square once a week throughout the Biennale’s run, their choreography developed by the pavilion’s artists with movements based on state-sanctioned violence.

Here are the standout artists from the Gwangju Biennale 2024.

Mira Mann

B. 1993, Frankfurt, Germany. Lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Of all the art on view, Mira Mann’s work engages with the tradition of pansori most directly—particularly their installations that are scattered throughout an empty house in the Yangnim district. There, Mann’s video Mother may recall another (2022)—first presented at DREI in 2022—is shown on three TV screens set on the floor. The piece reinterprets the tale of Simcheongga. This typical pansori story of a daughter sacrificing herself in the Indang Sea to save her father from blindness is told obliquely, through meandering scenes of contemporary life shot in home video–style footage. The central character is played by the artist’s family members and other artists, as the traditional Korean story is sung on top.

Born to a Korean mother in Germany, Mann often explores the history of Korean immigration to their home country in their work. Another installation in the Biennale’s main location, a long dressing room–style mirror titled objects of the wind (2024), is a memorial to the many Korean nurses who immigrated to Germany in the late 1960s, bringing the Korean folk drumming tradition of pungmul with them. Jindo buk drums, alongside feathered fans and stainless steel instruments, adorn the monument.

Andrius Arutiunian

B. 1991, Vilnius, Lithuania. Lives and works in The Hague, Netherlands.

With the Gwangju Biennale’s focus on sound, it’s perhaps unsurprising that one of the standout artists would be a musician. Arutiunian is a composer as well as an artist, working with sonic dissent and personal histories of sound. In the main pavilion, his visually arresting work Below (2024) consists of five bitumen sculptures. These haunting, black gloop–covered discs atop speaker-height stands emit a low, rumbling audio that tugs at the edge of the viewer’s awareness. This sound is supposed to evoke the progress of the material as it bubbles up through the earth’s crust.

Elsewhere, in the Biennale’s hub in the Yangnim district, Arutiunian has taken over the tiny confines of the Podonamu Art Space with another sound-based work. There, the artist has recreated a 1940s harmonium performance by the legendary Armenian Greek mystic and composer George Gurdjieff, which he has slowed down to a five-hour piece. The work recalls an improvised performance in Gurdjieff’s niche mid-century Paris milieu, attempting to echo this human connection, decades later.

Beaux Mendes

B. 1987, New York. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Scanning the row of Beaux Mendes’s small paintings in the Biennale’s main show, it is difficult to place them as landscape paintings. But though these canvases seem devoid of sunlight—containing mostly ghostly gray or obscure dark brown shapes—they stem from a process that begins en plein air. The series on view, “Black Forest,” is named after an area in the south of Germany that inspired it.

Mendes comes from a long line of German rabbis, and their grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. They traveled to Germany to work in isolation on these shadowy works in both the Bavarian Forest and the Elbe Valley (beloved by Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich). Made with unusual mediums and techniques, such as marble powder and water marbling, these sometimes murky, shadowy works conjure an ambivalent image of the artist’s familial history of displacement from this land. They also subvert the history of Romantic landscape painting, which glamorized the natural world with depictions of sweeping vistas and was used to bolster the fascistic ethos of the Nazis.

Alex Cerveny

B. 1963, São Paulo. Lives and works in São Paulo.

In one of the upper galleries in the main Biennale pavilion, Alex Cerveny’s paintings depict a kind of historically informed, encyclopedic panorama gesturing to themes of historical international migration. In Terra Santa (2023), a hilly desert landscape is annotated with illustrations of bodies, plants, and alphabetical lists of names and places, drawing links between seemingly disparate themes, like Biblical plagues of Egypt and pop songs (“Yes Sir I Can Boogie,” “One Moment in Time”).

In the most recent work on view, the long, horizontal seascape Boat People (2024), Cerveny focuses on the migration of Vietnamese people following the Vietnam War. With its title and literary reference points (The Odyssey and Moby Dick) painted on a framing band at the top of the work, the sparsely illustrated scene draws fascinating links between the colonial history of seafaring and its mythological sources. Cyclops, for instance, is one of the monsters faced by Odysseus in Homer’s poem, but also the name of a ship lost at sea in 1918. It heads up a long list of historical shipwrecks that snakes down the center of the painting.

Yuyan Wang

B. 1989, Qingdao, China. Lives and works in Paris.

Thick sludge courses through Yuyan Wang’s new film Green Grey Black Brown (2024). Muddy petroleum bubbles in its crude form in clips of found aerial footage of crater-like oil fields. In close-ups, gigantic fingers place power lines next to miniature models of oil pumps. A creepily slowed-down version of Yes’s classic 1980s power anthem “Owner of a Lonely Heart” loops throughout the film, giving it a dark and surreal edge.

Presented in the main pavilion of the Gwangju Biennale, in a room carpeted wall to wall with fake plastic grass, the work splices together scenes of ecocide with scenes of artificial flower production on factory assembly lines. In Wang’s film, oil becomes plastic, which in turn becomes sad, faded versions of nature’s ripest beauty. The result is a hypnotic meditation on globalization and climate change.

Brianna Leatherbury

B. 1995, Woodbridge, Virginia. Lives and works in Amsterdam.

In a corner of one of the main Biennale hall’s upper floors stands a strange, boxed-off room that viewers enter through plastic food service–style curtains. Inside, under whirring air conditioners, buzzing strip lights, and antiseptic-feeling silver walls, are a series of sculptures. Made of parts of a priceless Dutch colonial wardrobe and plated in copper, this is the work of American artist Brianna Leatherbury.

For this installation, the artist based their sculptures on the prized possessions of stock market investors who lent them objects that “they would take to their grave,” according to the artist’s description. Titled Burden (2024), it’s part of Leatherbury’s series “Insiders’ Grave,” and of their wider research into the meaning of value and ownership over time. The sculptures are randomly stacked, as if unintended for public view, and appear broken-down and dilapidated. Their copper layers seem to be peeling and discolored despite their temperature-controlled and sanitized environment, evoking the futility of capitalist structures on a decaying and warming planet.

Gaëlle Choisne

B. 1985, Cherbourg, France. Lives and works in Paris and London.

French artist Gaëlle Choisne’s assemblage works assert the potentially healing role of art in documenting the trauma of the past. For example, Eat me softly (Black unicorn) (2024)—on view at the Gwangju Biennale’s main pavilion—features a photograph of a derelict building UV-printed onto concrete slabs and leaned against the gallery walls. Part of a series documenting the impact of natural disasters on Port-au-Prince, the work is intended to memorialize these atmospheric, uninhabited locations.

Nearby, melons and other fruit, printed with a Korean translation of an Audre Lorde poem, are scattered onto the floor in a kind of offering. The work’s concrete slabs, meanwhile, are tempered with salt—a substance traditionally used for purification, but which also erodes the image printed onto this typically tough material. These ritual images elicit grief for their subjects, ravaged by climate change.

Togar

B. 1987, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Lives and works in Yogyakarta.

The Gwangju Biennale’s national pavilions—though similar in theory to the state-organized pavilions of Venice—are, in fact, put together by outside sources and only loosely affiliated with their respective countries. Indonesia’s national pavilion has been organized by artist Julian Abraham, a.k.a. Togar, and consists of a casual, welcoming space in the Asia Culture Center. It’s filled with beanbags for jam sessions, an immersive work of cardboard boxes, and the artist’s own idiomatic signs, printed in bright neons. “You may say I’m a drummer, but I’m not the only one,” reads one, riffing on the famous John Lennon lyric in Ed Ruscha–esque capitals.

The artist’s work is also featured in the main exhibition, in the Horanggasinamu Art Polygon. Here, he has created another welcoming environment, with more of his signature signs (“I’ve always been a fella but I’ll never be a Kuti”) along with tinkling kinetic sculptures. The standout work is BIOSPOKE (2024), a thoughtful, single-channel video exploring the history of sound in cinema with interviews and performances that dissect how voices have appeared on screen across time.

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Art Basel, Frieze and other leading art fairs sign up to climate action initiative. https://ift.tt/oOu9BHY

Thirteen major art fair organizations, including Frieze, Art Basel, and TEFAF, have joined the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) in a landmark initiative to combat climate change. The new alliance, which represents over 40 art fairs, aims to reduce the art world’s environmental impact. Its focuses include areas such as transportation, energy consumption, and waste.

The initiative includes a joint commitment statement and an “Art Fair Toolkit for Environmental Responsibility.” These frameworks will guide signatory fairs in reducing their carbon footprint, setting a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030. The toolkit outlines practical steps for fairs to address key sources of emissions, such as air freight and single-use materials, which account for a significant portion of the industry’s carbon output. According to the GCC, up to one-third of a typical gallery’s annual emissions are tied to art fair activities, with air freight representing about 70% of that figure.

It is rare to see some of the biggest names in the commercial art world come together to make such a statement. “Frieze is proud to be an active member of the Gallery Climate Coalition,” said Jon Ashman, chief financial and operations officer at Frieze. “The establishment of this toolkit marks a significant step forward, offering invaluable guidance to reduce the environmental impact of the art world.”

Andrew Strachan, General Manager of Fairs and Exhibition Platforms at Art Basel, echoed this sentiment, calling the collaboration “an important milestone” in driving sustainability. “By engaging in shared learning and mutual support, we are shaping a transformative dialogue aimed at leading the global art community toward a more sustainable future,” he said.

Will Korner, Head of Fairs at TEFAF, noted that the organization has reduced energy consumption at its Maastricht fair by 43% since 2019. “With our position in the art community comes a huge responsibility. Structural change requires immediate collective action,” he said.

Other art fairs who have signed up include Madrid and Lisbon fair ARCO, Copenhagen fair CHART, Liste Art Fair Basel, Ramsay Fairs (which runs the Affordable Art Fair), and New York’s The Art Show.

Gallery Climate Coalition is an international coalition of more than 1,500 arts organizations. Together, they hope to reduce the visual art sector’s impact on the environment, promoting zero waste practices and CO2 usage reduction. Heath Lowndes, Director of the Gallery Climate Coalition, praised the unprecedented collaboration: “Leading art fairs have recognized that there is no more business as usual. By working together, they have set an example for others in the sector to follow.”

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The 25 Auction Terms Every Art Collector Needs to Know https://ift.tt/Xju17Zy

For anyone new to collecting, auctions can be an enigmatic part of the market.

Auction houses are some of the art world’s most storied and recognizable institutions. With a history dating back to the 17th century, art auctions facilitate the sale of artworks through competitive bidding. Because their sales and results are public, they often play a significant role in illustrating art market trends.

The traditional image of an auction house—grand theaters of paddle waving and hammer raising—is still a common feature of the art world. But the eye-popping sales figures that often make headlines are not the full picture: Alongside these headline-grabbing sales, day auctions offer works at accessible price points, providing approachable entry points for new collectors.

Auctions take place both in person and online. Live auctions take place at an auction house such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s, or Phillips. Online auctions mirror this process digitally, with bids placed via platforms that allow anyone, anywhere, to take part. Many online auctions run concurrently with in-person events.

But auctions can often be intimidating to approach. Often populated with crowds of experienced collectors and advisors, in-person sales can present a bit of a learning curve once you’ve been handed your paddle and directed to the main event. One of the main reasons for this is the barrage of specialized terms used by auction houses, which can often cause confusion to the uninitiated, whether they are bidding in person or online.

Should you find yourself among the attendees at a major auction house or bidding online at home, you’ll need to know the basic lexicon to keep up with a fast-paced sale.

Here, we share 25 auction terms that every art collector needs to know before attending their first auction.

Appraisal

An appraisal is a formal evaluation of an artwork’s potential worth. An expert assesses the work based on factors like condition, authenticity, provenance, and market trends to reach a figure that represents its fair market value (see below). It can also be used to calculate an artwork’s insurance value and for issues such as estate planning.

Think of it like any valuable asset—a car, a diamond necklace, or a summer home. An owner of a painting might seek an appraisal to understand its value for insurance purposes, as well as set a sale price and ensure they have adequate coverage in case of loss or damage. If a collector wants to live with or sell their art, they often want to understand what’s at stake.

Bid

Plainly put, a bid is an offer of money for an item at an auction.

The bidding process begins when the auction house presents an artwork for sale, and participants signal their offers by placing bids. In person, this is indicated by raising a paddle. Online, it can be compared to placing a bid on eBay, except it’s done in real time and, often, in a fast-paced environment.

At in-person auctions, bidders can also participate without being physically present by placing an absentee bid, where they submit their maximum offer beforehand. There are also phone bids, where the collector instructs someone at the auction to bid on their behalf up to a specific limit.

Let’s say an artwork starts its bidding at $10 million. The auction kicks off with a bid in the book from an in-person bidder at $10.5 million. Then, a phone bid of $11 million shortly before a third absentee bid raises the price to $13 million. Each bid attempts to outmatch the others until the highest bid remains the only offer in play, marking the end of the bidding for that artwork.

Bought in

When bidders remain silent, and no offers meet the minimum price, an artwork is bought in. This means that the piece does not sell.

This “reserve price” is the lowest price the seller is willing to accept for the lot. If a work is put up for auction with a reserve price of $50,000, for example, and the highest bidder only reaches $45,000, the lot would not be sold.

Buyer’s premium

Winning bidders are often expected to pay a buyer’s premium. This fee is paid on top of the hammer price (see below) to the auction house for its services.

For example, if a painting sells for a hammer price of $10,000 and the buyer’s premium is set at 20%, the buyer will owe an additional $2,000 to the auction house, bringing the total payment to $12,000.

Cataloging

For every artwork an auction house offers for sale, it will catalog information about it to present to would-be bidders and browsers. This involves detailed descriptions of the artwork, its history, and other relevant notes of interest such as major exhibitions that it may have appeared in.

For example, an auction house would begin to catalog a painting by detailing its title dimensions, medium, date, and a brief description of its themes. It will also include its notable history and provenance (see below).

Commission agreement

A commission agreement is a contract that details the financial arrangements between a seller and an auction house. This contract specifies the fees the seller agrees to pay upon the sale of the artwork.

A consignor (see below) might enter into an agreement to pay a 15% commission to the auction house if their artwork sells. This contract typically covers not only the commission rate but also other potential fees for services like storage, insurance, and cataloging. If a piece sells for $100,000, for instance, the consignor would owe the auction house $15,000 as a commission.

Consignor

In short, the consignor is the person selling an artwork at auction. Rather than selling an artwork directly, a consignor is putting it into the care of a third party, usually an auction house. A collector might consign a painting from their private collection to an auction house, entrusting it to manage the sale and maximize the painting’s market value.

Condition report

The condition report is a detailed report, often written by a specialist, that gives you the history and current status of the physical condition of the artwork.

The condition report should include any restorations and surface irregularities, so a new buyer can understand the artwork’s physical appearance and integrity.

Reporte de condición, 2022
Marco Treviño
Proyecto Paralelo

Designation

In the art auction catalog, the designation line refers to a short description that identifies the person or entity selling the artwork (i.e. the consignor). This line appears at the top of each entry.

Often, consignors do not want to be named. For instance, an artwork sold by an anonymous American collector might read: “Property of a Distinguished American Collector.” This description can give some background for curious browsers without disclosing the owner’s full identity.

Estimate

Before each auction, the auction house provides an estimate, which is an informed prediction of the value of an artwork. Usually presented as a range, this estimate is based on factors like the artist’s previous auction results, market history, the condition of the work, the provenance, and sales by comparable artists.

How lots perform against their estimates is one of the most closely watched parts of an auction.

Fair market value

Fair market value is what an item could realistically sell for in an open market, typically determined during an appraisal.

As well as taking into account factors such as provenance and significance, fair market value considers the current demand for an artist’s work in the market but taking into account factors such as auction results.

Fair warning

The last chance to bid before an item is sold is known as a fair warning. An auctioneer might call out “fair warning” before surveying the room. If no one in the crowd raises the current bid, the artwork in question will be sold to the highest bidder.

Flipping

Flipping art is a practice that is not so different from other markets, such as real estate. It’s the practice of buying and reselling artwork for a profit, often within a short period of time, taking advantage of market demands.

For example, someone may purchase an artwork at auction only to “flip” it a few years later to capitalize on increased demand. Flipping is one of the most controversial practices in the art market and continues to be a topic of debate among commentators.

Gavel

The gavel, the quintessential tool of the auctioneer, is a small hammer that helps conduct the auction. With a decisive strike of the gavel on the podium, the auctioneer “hammers” to signal the end of bidding, sealing the price of the work in question.

Auction, 2015
Egle Karpaviciute
The Rooster Gallery

Guarantee

A guarantee in an auction setting ensures that an artwork sells for at least a pre-specified minimum price. This guarantee can be offered by the auction house itself, known as a “house guarantee,” or through a partnership with an external party such as a collector, gallery, art advisor, or investor, termed a “third-party guarantee.”

Guarantees have been a fixture of the art market’s top end for decades. For example, the notable Scull Collection sale at Sotheby’s in 1973 was secured with a house guarantee, ensuring the artworks would sell for a minimum agreed price.

The concept of a third-party guarantee was first prominently used in 1999 when Sotheby’s arranged for a backer to support the sale of a Pablo Picasso painting, guaranteeing a minimum price through external financing.

Hammer price

The highest bid once an auctioneer strikes the gavel on their podium is the hammer price. This sum is calculated without any fees imposed by the auction house.

Lot

In an auction, the lot refers to an item or group of items offered for sale as a single unit. One lot can consist of a set of sculptures or a single painting. Each lot is assigned a lot number, which serves as its identifier during the auction.

Provenance

One of the most critical components of the value of a painting is its provenance. Provenance refers to the history and ownership record of an item, tracing it back to its origin

For instance, Titian’s infamous Rest on the Flight into Egypt (ca. 1508), which sold for £17.56 million ($22.17 million) at Christie’s London in July 2024, offers a prime example of a storied provenance. The painting, which was previously owned by dukes, archdukes, and Holy Roman Emperors, was stolen twice—first by Napoleon in 1809 and again in 1995 from the Longleat estate in Wiltshire. The painting was miraculously recovered in 2002 in London, found in a plastic bag without its frame.

Reserve

The reserve, also known as the reserve price, is the lowest price that a seller will accept for an item.

If bidding fails to reach this threshold, the item is bought in (see above), meaning it does not sell and remains with the seller. Reserves are closely related to guarantees (see above): When an auction house or a third-party guarantee is in place, it means that the lot will sell for at least the reserve price.

Suppose a painting has a reserve set at $100,000. If the highest bid only reaches $90,000, the painting will be passed over—or bought in—because it did not meet the reserve price. This ensures the seller does not have to part with the artwork for a price that they deem less than acceptable.

Seller’s commission

The seller’s commission is the fee that a seller pays to the auction house as a percentage of the hammer price for the service of successfully selling their property. This commission is typically negotiable, especially for high-value lots, and does not include other sale-related expenses like photography and shipping.

For example, if a painting were to sell for $1 million at an auction and the commission rate agreed upon is 20%, then the seller would pay the auction house $200,000 as the commission fee. This percentage serves as compensation for the auction house’s efforts in marketing, presenting, and facilitating the sale of the artwork.

Sell-through rate

A sell-through rate is the percentage of lots from an auction that are sold. For instance, if 90 lots from a 100-lot auction are sold, the sell-through rate would be 90%.

Sell-through rates can serve as indicators of demand for a given part of the art market. They can also reveal trends, such as fluctuations in buyer interest. However, this can only tell part of the story. If an evening sale has a 100% sell-through rate, for example, one might think the sale was a success—when in reality, the works might have all sold for below their low estimates.

Underbidder

The underbidder is the second-highest bidder for a lot in an auction.

Picture this: You bid $500,000 on a work, feeling confident, only for someone else to swoop in with a $600,000 bid that you do not match. You are then the last bidder to drop out of the sale, becoming the underbidder.

Valuation

Valuation is an assessment of a lot’s value, often prepared by the staff at an auction house. Conducted by an expert, valuations differ from appraisals in that they are used for different purposes, such as insurance planning, or collateral loans. Unlike appraisals, they are not used to calculate auction estimates.

White glove sale

A white glove sale is an auction house’s dream scenario. This term—which refers to the white gloves worn by auction staff to handle artworks—is granted to a sale where every single item on the block finds a buyer. In November 2023, for example, Sotheby’s sold all 31 lots in its M. Fisher Landau sale, including works by Agnes Martin, Mark Tansey, and Picasso.

Withdrawn lot

Not every lot that is scheduled to appear at an auction makes its way to the block. These are called withdrawn lots, where an artwork is pulled from a sale, often at the last minute. This can be due to several issues, such as uncertain buyer interest, before a lot reaches the auction block.

Often, the reason for the withdrawal is not made public. It’s important to note that withdrawals are often omitted from sell-through rates when an auction house releases its final sales report.

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