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| AAF New York, Fall 2010. Photo Credit Alejandro Ben Chimol |
Here the dealers of the plastic art world wait for their prey. Using color, shape and luster they enchant the paying VIPs many of whom unschooled about the art they see.
This scene repeats itself at hundreds of art fairs. Popular events these days, usually held in cities both large and small, often for people with large disposable incomes. But not anymore. The Affordable Art Fair (AAF) provides art for the masses. “Art is Everywhere” read the promotional posters shown in the local news and entertainment magazines last summer. The AAF has been produced since 2003 and today it sets up camp in almost all continents.
It is a tricky thing to understand the art market, especially in New York where this market is actually made up by just about 70% of its population. Being the center of the art world, in this city everyone has a chance to buy original art from almost everywhere in the planet. That is the market opportunity AAF provides: art from $100 to $10.000 and the chance to start an art collection. But when you can buy art for $100, are you collecting or are you decorating?
Purchasing decisions at AAF seem to be based on bright colors, sheen, pop themes and how it fits in “my living room” than about the artist, his/her career, influences, messages, etc. Set with the task of selling art at this kind of venues, you should be aware that a fair is still a fair, even if it as an “art” fair. At AAF a work of art is a cheap commodity. It is a thing, framed, prepackaged, transported, stacked, displayed, sold, packaged and finally consumed.
Probably the most successful booth at the AAF this Fall, “20x200” understands this medium and its message well. This is a shop that sales art by the price not by the quality of the art. They were quite successful. At times their staff seemed like they were selling Magnolia cupcakes, lines and all. “20x200” sold reproductions starting at $100. “Art for Everyone” is their tag line.
For gallerists –you have to be one to pass admission as an exhibitor– a species of the art ecosystem certainly on its the way to extinction, things are hard at AAF. Real gallerists curate. They cultivate individual talent. They are artist-focused and mediate the relationships of the artists with the buyer. Real gallerists have to sell more than art, they have to sell the artist. They live in a very uncertain world: buyers are fickle, undecided and sometimes out-right rude. Gallerists get indecent proposals at the end of a show. And yes! It involves a little money in exchange for precious goods. They pay lots of money in rent and have to sale at any rate to pay costs. This is why gallerists become street walkers, ready to deal for the quickest, best offer; no ties, no commitments.
Are we seeing the birth of a new merchant in the art world? The internet has certainly created that opportunity. For now say welcome to the new big players of the art game: fair organizers and labor unions. Collectors and Auction houses are also part of it, but these I would say are from a parallel universe. They all want a piece of the cake. Before the collapse of Lehman Brothers there seemed to be a piece for everybody. The good news is that art market is expanding to emerging economies, guest how: through the art fairs big international brands: Art Basel, Pulse and now Pinta.
The new emerging classes want to be part of the first world and are ready to spend their disposable income in art that speaks to them in a different language.
The new emerging classes want to be part of the first world and are ready to spend their disposable income in art that speaks to them in a different language.
