Where is the passion for art?

In this last post about the digitalization of the art world, we wanted to focus on the lack of experience in the virtual art fairs.

If you are an art collector, artist or just an art lover in general, going to art fairs might often leave you with a mixed feeling. The venue of a trade fair leaves its stamp on experiencing the works, which don’t always get the space and the light they need… and the food is never as good as what you get served in restaurants from gallery districts of London, Berlin or Paris. But all this is often compensated by the joy of seeing new work from one of your favorite artists, by having an inspiring conversation with a gallery owner or by running into fellow collectors. If a virtual art fair wants to compete with the vibrant atmosphere of its real-life counterpart (including the experience of a nice city trip), it needs to be more than just a website.

Most virtual art fairs have failed until today because they didn’t build upon a lively online community. The Art Amsterdam Online was hosted on Open Art Collection, the VIP Art Fair was a new platform. Both initiatives couldn’t benefit from an existing online community. We think that initiatives such as Independent Collectors or Welcome to Company who are today creating a community of art lovers, have more potential to become a market place later.

Long-distance picks: Tinkebell

While not being able to experience the art fair in real life this year, we were nevertheless following related online news and selected our favs purely virtually. Some “good ol’ image manipulation” compensated lack of original photos.
So here goes our Art Amsterdam pick nr 1:

Represented by Torch gallery, Tinkebell was one of the artists selected for “No Holds Barred”, series of 12 solo shows within the fair, where – as the name implies – all means were allowed. A theme that easily fits all Tinkebell’s work up to date, as her absurd, hilarious and thought-provoking projects pretty much all use extreme methods. Genius as they are, they’re also continuously misinterpreted, and needless to say that extreme measures bring extreme reactions (which she again makes good use of).  The most media-washed are her projects involving animals. Tinkebell’s message is very direct, but the incapability or a denial of plenty of general public to “get it” speaks for everything.

For her solo at No Holds Barred, Tinkebell prepared a fabulous presentation “On Amy Taxidermy – From a True Fan”, featuring photos and objects related to this truly fascinating young lady from North Carolina. Wow, Tinkebell, wish we’ve found her first!!!

Why are virtual art fairs failing?

We ended our last post about digitalization of the art world with 2 images which illustrate quite well what’s going on. The first – a screenshot of Jan Hoet’s profile on the Open Art Collection – was… empty. Although a member since 2010, Jan Hoet has 0 friends, 0 galleries, 0 collectors and artists linked to him on the platform. What a contrast with his offline address book, probably one of the most valuable items in Belgian art world and beyond. The second screenshot –  a tweet from @artamsterdam about the first sale on the virtual art fair – shows how painfully underperforming this platform is (first sale on Saturday, while fair was open from Wednesday).

So why are virtual art fairs failing? One of the reasons is the way most of these initiatives approach the digital space. They seem to lack every understanding of how digital works and simply try to copy what is happening off-line in an online environment.

Let’s take Art Amsterdam Online as example. This virtual art fair is hosted on Open Art Collection platform. After spending 5 minutes on this platform, clicking left and right, you will already hit the first barrier: you need a subscription.

Are online art fairs the new black?

Yesterday, we opened these couple of posts about Art Amsterdam Online and the digitalization of the art business with some general ideas. Today we want to dig deeper into the whole debate with focusing first of all on the plethora of digital initiatives we have seen in the art world over the last quarters. Why do they appear all of the sudden? What is driving these initiatives? Are they going to change the art world?

Let’s take a step back and try to put this in perspective. What is happening in the art business is not unique. In fact, the art industry is very late in reacting on the new digital reality. Since the first internet bubble in the late nineties, a lot of industries have experimented with the possibilities the growth of internet has created: from online book stores and travel agencies to online grocery stores, etc… as obvious examples. Not all of them were successful – especially not during the first years – and hardly one of them has pushed an old industry players completely out of the market. However, the ones that managed to make money have grown into strong modern brands, influencing the standard practices of their respective industries and often influencing the relationship between the company offering products or services and the consumer buying them.

Open Art Collection : a small step towards the art business of the future

Let us be clear: we are convinced that digital will revolutionize the art world. We are convinced that this change is happening now already and it will only become more obvious over the next years. This shift is influencing the business models along which the art industry has been working since decades and it will inevitability transfer powers between the actors in the play. Some might disappear, others will gain power, new ones will come forward; after all the art industry is a business driven by supply, demand and value creation with people making decisions and trying to optimize their portfolios. New rules create new opportunities.

So where will this digital revolution – with the availability of broadband internet, the increased penetration of mobile internet and tablets, the popularization of social media like Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and LinkedIn – take the art business? We don’t want to pretend we know the answer to such vast question, but probably it will take us much further than we can think of now. Allow us to answer instead with a famous quote by Bill Gates: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten”.

A long introduction to finally come to the topic we want to discuss : is the Art Amsterdam Online experiment on Open Art Collection a step in this new direction?

Art Amsterdam “storified”