The Artsy Art Fair Report 2024 https://ift.tt/EychCrJ

Welcome to the inaugural Artsy Art Fair Report, a new survey of the key trends and topics impacting art fairs today.

Since Rudolf Zwirner and Hein Stünke first launched Art Cologne in 1967, art fairs have become an ubiquitous part of the contemporary art market, with more than 350 set to take place in 2024. In today’s globalized art world, fairs have evolved from trade fairs to bona fide cultural events.

With this report—the first of its kind—we gathered insights from our global community of galleries and art dealers that undergird the commercial art world. To get a full picture, we surveyed gallerists and dealers who do participate in art fairs and those who do not.

What we found, in short, is that art fairs continue to be a central plank of the art world. Some 69% of the gallerists that we surveyed participate in art fairs, and those that do champion their role as a way to meet new collectors, and increase the presence of their gallery: Some 75% of those surveyed that participated in an art fair in 2023 said that they gained new clients, and 47% described the collectors of artworks at these events as mostly new to their business. Those who are planning to participate in more art fairs this year list expansion into new markets (45%) and increased sales (37%) as their primary motivations for doing so.

Galleries that take part in fairs are also utilizing different sales channels to connect with collectors: 57% of respondents said they use online viewing rooms on platforms such as Artsy, and 54% use the online viewing room platforms provided by art fairs.

This report also looks into the key sales methods of galleries that participate in fairs; the types of artworks that they are selling; and the art fair cities that our respondents view as the most important to the international art world.

Below, find a summary of our key takeaways. For the full analysis, download the The Artsy Art Fair Report.

The Findings

1. Art fairs remain a vital way to meet new collectors.

Art fairs give collectors the unique opportunity to browse artworks from a multitude of galleries—often from across the world—under a single roof. Concurrently, they enable exhibitors to reach collectors in jurisdictions and environments outside of their traditional cities and sales channels.

It’s not a shock, then, to see that among the galleries we surveyed that participate in art fairs, more respondents (36%) chose “meeting new collectors” than any other option when asked for the reasons why. Some 75% of those who participated in art fairs last year said that they had gained new clients from doing so.

2. Most galleries are not taking part in more fairs in 2024.

If 2022 marked a full-scale return from most COVID-19 precautions around the world, 2023 can be seen as a year of relative adjustment, where the aftereffects of the pandemic were being weighed up against a broader economic picture that was uneven at best.

For art fairs—endeavors that incur costs, necessitate travel, and require extensive shipping and installation logistics—these broader shifts in the art market were always going to have an acute effect. Our research shows that galleries are taking a more cautious approach to art fairs in this context.

Heading into 2024, just a quarter (25%) of respondents said that they will be taking part in more art fairs than they did last year, and 34% of respondents said that they will be participating in the same number. Some 29% said they will be taking part in fewer fairs.

3. The cost of art fairs is the highest barrier to entry.

Whether it’s in shipping works, transporting and lodging team members, or purchasing installation materials, art fairs can be expensive endeavors. It’s this factor that respondents viewed as the most significant driver leading galleries to participate in fewer art fairs or skip them altogether.

As the chart above shows, a majority (56%) of galleries that don’t participate in art fairs consider them too expensive. The resources required for galleries to participate in fairs can also make them difficult to partake in—some 19% said they don’t take part in fairs due to a lack of staff, and 18% said that the events are too time-consuming.

4. VIP days are just a slice of the ways that galleries make sales at fairs.

How and when are artworks selling at art fairs?

When asked to select the two time periods of an art fair that generate the most sales, most respondents (50%) said that most of their sales are made during the course of the fair after VIP day. However, almost as many (49%) said they made most of their sales on the VIP day. Meanwhile, almost a quarter (24%) said the bulk of their works are sold after the end of the fair. Perhaps surprisingly, just 12% of respondents said that they make most sales before the fair starts, countering the popular suspicion of recent years that most works at art fairs are pre-sold.

Many of our findings from this survey fell in line with art industry standards. A majority (53%) of respondents said that they give an average discount of 10–15% on works at art fairs, followed by 18% who said they offer discounts of less than 10%; 14% who said their discounts range from 15–20%; and 8% who don’t offer discounts. Just 3% of those surveyed said that they gave discounts of more than 20%.

5. New York is viewed as the art fair capital of the world.

International art fairs are essential platforms for collectors, galleries, and artists to converge in one place. They can also function as flag bearers for their local art scenes and destinations in their own right.

When asked what cities with major art fairs are most important to the international art world, this combination comes to the fore. New York was identified by the most respondents (75%) as among the most important art fair cities in the international art world. As well as its deep art scene and resilient concentration of collectors, the Big Apple has two distinct annual art fair moments—two weeks in May, anchored by Frieze New York; and a week in September, anchored by The Armory Show—whereas most cities tend to have one.

Download The Artsy Art Fair Report 2024.

Methodology

The Artsy Art Fair Report 2024 was developed through an online survey that ran from January 2024 to February 2024. It yielded responses from 377 gallery professionals and art dealers that are both partners and non-partners of Artsy.

The majority of participants (33%) are based in the U.S., followed by the U.K. (10%). Some 19% have been in business for less than three years, 48% have been in business for 3–15 years, and 33% have been in business for more than 15 years.

Thank you

This report would not have been possible without the gallerists, art dealers, and other art world professionals who took the time to share their thoughts in our survey. We would like to express our gratitude and hope that this report serves you well.

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Jeffrey Gibson will create the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2025 façade commission. https://ift.tt/r2f9vbV

WHAT WE WANT WHAT WE NEED, 2015
Jeffrey Gibson
Roberts Projects

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has today revealed its selection of artists for its prestigious 2025 commissions. Jeffrey Gibson, a contemporary artist of Choctaw and Cherokee heritage, is set to transform The Met’s Fifth Avenue façade with four new figurative sculptures, which the artist describes as “ancestral spirit figures,” from September 2025 through May 2026. Alongside Gibson, Jennie C. Jones will present her first outdoor sculptural installation on the Museum’s roof garden, running from April 15 through October 19, 2025.

Gibson, born in 1972 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is renowned for his vibrant, multi-disciplinary approach that incorporates Indigenous visual imagery with bright contemporary abstraction and text. This year, he will be the first Indigenous artist to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale with a solo show.

Jennie C. Jones is celebrated for her explorations into sound and its relation to history and space. Jones’s work, characterized by a minimalist approach that builds on elements of jazz, offers a commentary on the sonic and visual dimensions of art. Her Met Roof commission will explore “the sonic potential of stringed instruments as well as their formal possibilities,” according to the museum.

“Though stylistically different, both Jones and Gibson see the potential for beauty and form to carry the potency of individual and cultural histories,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s CEO.

The museum already announced its 2024 commissions: Lee Bul has been selected to transform the museum’s façade, while Petrit Halijaj will create this year’s roof commission.

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Maddox Gallery is now representing German painter Moritz Moll. https://ift.tt/Gt5W3d9

Maddox Gallery has announced its representation of Munich-based figurative painter Moritz Moll. Moll’s bright, flattened depictions of friends and family in oils and spray paint explore the transition from youth to adulthood.

“Molls’s distinctive portraiture sits uniquely within our portfolio, with his gender-fluid, vibrant figures offering a more modernist approach to the genre,” said Fi Lovett, European director at Maddox.

The artist’s debut solo exhibition with Maddox, presenting Pop-inspired apres-ski portraits, is titled “The Grand Finale,” and opened on February 12th in Gstaad, Switzerland. This exhibition follows his participation in “Summer Daze” at Maddox’s Westbourne Grove space in the summer of 2023.

A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (AdBK) in 2021, Moll is influenced by a range of sources, from Henri Matisse’s colorism and Alex Katz’s figuration to the cinematic narratives of Wes Anderson and Wim Wenders.

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HdM Gallery expands into a new Beijing space. https://ift.tt/hGD1J2Q

Beijing-based HdM Gallery celebrated its 15th anniversary on December 12th with the inauguration of a new, 500-square-meter gallery space in Beijing’s 798 Art District at No.4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang. The space, designed by the architectural firm Sybarite, marks a notable upgrade from the gallery’s previous 400-square-meter location within the same art district.

HdM Gallery collaborated with Sybarite to rethink the interior of its gallery space. In a press release, Sybarite co-founder Torquil McIntosh said, “The overarching concept was to focus on preserving the existing building’s inherent sense of solidity and texture, with interiors celebrating the characteristic and founded rawness of both materiality and form. From the outset, there was a desire to create a delicate yet impactful juxtaposition between the existing architecture and any infused newness.”

The gallery’s anniversary was also commemorated with a celebratory exhibition showcasing its diverse community of artists. Featuring work from artists such as Jin Woo Lee and Christopher Orr, the exhibition runs through February 24th.

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America Ferrera will play Ana Mendieta in forthcoming TV series “Naked by the Window.” https://ift.tt/1hcz9Jm

America Ferrera is on board to executive produce and star in Naked by the Window. Based on the book by Robert Katz, which was first published in 1990, the series aims to shed light on the life and death of Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta, alongside her significant impact on the New York art scene. When she was 36, the artist fell to her death from a window, leading to the controversial trial of her husband, minimalist sculptor Carl Andre, for her murder.

The series, currently in development at Amazon MGM Studios, will see Ferrera portraying Mendieta, who is known for her “Silueta” series of “earth body works” that depict the artist’s body molded into the land in natural environments caves, fields, and beaches.

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Why the Ceramics Market Is Having a Moment https://ift.tt/x8daEki

From the masters of modern studio pottery such as Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, and Bernard Leach to the wildly abstract and experimental work of contemporary ceramists, the medium is having a moment among collectors of all levels.

Collector interest in ceramics has been on the rise in recent years. A significant signpost came with a Phillips and Maak Contemporary Ceramics auction from the collection of Dr. John Driscoll in November 2021. Its pre-sale mid-estimate of £2 million was exceeded by 228% and set 28 world auction records for works by the likes of Micheal Cardew, Hans Coper, and the celebrated Nigerian potter Ladi Kwali. The sale marked one of the most significant collections of contemporary ceramics to come to auction, and underscores much of the momentum for the medium today, seen most recently in a new auction record for Austrian artist Lucie Rie last November.

On the primary market, this has similarly been observed, with galleries and fairs also noticing an uptick in interest.

Early Scraffito Vase with Roman Bathtub Leaf Design,
Lucie Rie
Jeffrey Spahn Gallery

Stem Cup, ca. 1980
Michael Cardew
Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections

Now in its 20th year, Collect Fair is the leading international fair for contemporary craft and design presented by Crafts Council. Taking place from March 1st through 3rd at Somerset House in London, it presents the work of international living artists, all made within the last five years.

Isobel Dennis, the fair’s director, told Artsy that contemporary ceramics are particularly appealing to younger collectors. “Ceramics are so familiar to us all. It is not an intimidating medium,” she said. “When you’re investing in a work for the first time, it’s important to go for something that you feel comfortable with, and ceramics offer this.

“The functionality of ceramics frames it as a humble medium, but there is an extraordinary breadth of outcomes from how an artist might approach it,” she said, “from elegant porcelain to more abstract pieces, which encompass different firings and glazes in all their complexity.”

In recent years Collect has noticed changes in the market, including mid-career artists increasingly entering the secondary market. Dennis noted the British potter Matthew Chambers as an example: “He has a phenomenal method of making, without traditional glazes,” she explained. “There is secondary-market value there. Chambers has been in many British sales now alongside mid-century British studio potters.”

Dennis also pointed to the expansion of the global ceramics market in recent years, as interest has grown in viewing a wider range of practices from around the world. “We have some amazing First Nations work from Canada this year, including from Darren Emeneau and Nancy Oakley,” the organizers explained. “This is new for us at the fair, and the London audience at the fair is excited to see how Indigenous cultures have influenced contemporary ceramics.”

Self-identity and storytelling are key themes of the works at Collect Fair this year, with highlights including the work of Matt Smith, represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery; and Simon Dredge, represented by Alveston Fine Arts. Both artists experiment with clay techniques and with their queer identities.

Meanwhile in Europe, the emergence of dedicated fairs such as Ceramic Brussels—which hosted its debut edition in January—indicates the buoyancy of interest across the continent. “The organizers of Ceramic Brussels already host a fair dedicated to paper: Art on Paper. Ceramic Brussels takes this a step further to explore this medium which is very hot on the art market right now,” said Lise Coirier, director of Spazio Nobile, a contemporary applied arts, design, and photography gallery in Brussels.

Raku Black #7, 2022
Kiki van Eijk
Spazio Nobile

Raku White Black Blue #1, 2022
Kiki van Eijk
Spazio Nobile

Spazio Nobile represents an international selection of mid-career artists dedicated to the use of ceramics as an artistic and experimental medium. Coirier highlights the long history of ceramics that gives the medium so much weight and appeal. “People have always needed ceramics for so many functional uses, and I think it’s this lineage that makes the ceramics market so fruitful,” she said.

The immediacy of the medium is also appealing to newer collectors, explained Emily Moore from 8 Holland Street. “We might view the ceramics market in two branches: the studio pottery market, where depth of knowledge of the artist’s history is key; and the newer pottery craft market, where whimsical and narrative-based pieces are appealing in their tactility and childlike naivety,” she said. For instance, Claudia Rankin is one such contemporary ceramist who has seen success with the gallery over the past few years, and had a sold-out show with the gallery, alongside the painter Isaac Benigson, in May 2023.

8 Holland Street has galleries in London and Bath, and is heavily influenced by the British modernist collector Jim Ede’s home-turned-gallery, Kettle’s Yard, in Cambridge, England. The gallery is interested in dissolving object hierarchies in the gallery space, where ceramics play an important role. “We’ve noticed an increase in recent years in the interior design market, with press requests for pots to be used to photograph domestic interior spaces,” said Moore. “Contemporary ceramics straddle form and function in the home. Some of Rankin’s pieces, for example, are candlestick holders, but these are also sculptural objects,” she added.

Toeing the line between functionality and conceptualism, contemporary ceramics are an accessible way into the art market for newer collectors, and their appeal continues to resonate with established buyers. The diversity, versatility, and experimental capacity of the medium appeal to a variety of tastes and preferences.

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Michael Werner Gallery to open new locations in L.A and Athens in May. https://ift.tt/Ex8XMi2

Michael Werner Gallery has announced plans to open new spaces in Los Angeles and Athens this May. The new locations will join the gallery’s existing New York, London, and Berlin venues.

The Los Angeles gallery will be located at 415 North Camden Drive in Beverly Hills, designed by local firm Johnston Marklee and will feature a garden and courtyard by landscape architect Eric Nagelmann. Courtney Treut, formerly of Sean Kelly Gallery and Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles, as well as Anton Kern Gallery in New York, has been appointed as the gallery director.

The inaugural exhibition in Los Angeles will juxtapose the works of German painter Markus Lüpertz with those of 19th-century French artist Pierre Puvis des Chavannes. The courtyard’s programming, including poetry readings and performances, will be curated by Hannah Hoffman, a Los Angeles gallerist who collaborates with Michael Werner Gallery to represent two artists.

In Athens, the gallery will occupy a space at Leoforos Vasileos Georgiou 10, designed to be a semi-private venue hosting two exhibitions a year. The Athens location is set to open in the last week of May with a group exhibition featuring artists from the gallery’s roster.

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