Image via the The New Yorker (courtesy Bored Ape Yacht Club)
The Art World Now (In Five Hot Takes) By Wendy Cromwell
I founded my art consultancy 20 years ago to bring contemporary art to people who were curious about collecting. Over the years, the art market has become bigger, more diverse, financialized, and globalized. But while the rest of the world went digital, the art world didn’t, cherishing the physical and placing primacy on the experience of brick-and-mortar art galleries and museums. At times, the art market seemed almost antithetical to technological innovation. That all changed with COVID-19, which drove the art world into digital marketing and direct-to-consumer strategies. Simultaneously, a younger, more diverse generation has grown up that sees and consumes on a screen. Nothing replaces the in real life (IRL) art experience, but the art market is now, more than ever, driven by digital consumption. As we leave the 1900s firmly behind us and enter the third decade of the 21st century; how art gets made and sold is changing. DIRECT TO CONSUMER | Instagram is the No. 1 direct-toconsumer art marketplace. Will the app replace the gallery or merely decentralize the art business? Instagram, founded in 2010, has given artists more agency over the distribution of their art. 74 slmag.net
Artists use it as a platform for sharing images, so galleries are no longer the art “gatekeepers.” Collectors now have the ability to contact artists on Instagram, bypass galleries, and source talent on the app, feeding demand from a growing pool of buyers. Hot Take No. 1: Instagram is now the largest art gallery in the world, challenging galleries and museums to remain relevant. NFT (not for the timid!) | An NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a unique digital asset that can be a digital image of almost anything, including a physical work of art. What makes it unique? It’s registered on the blockchain, so its authenticity and ownership can be verified by anyone, anywhere. Blockchain allows for the “life” of an NFT to be tracked, so whenever ownership changes hands, there’s a permanent record which can be useful in terms of establishing provenance. NFT art is made by artists who are typically outside the traditional art world. They don’t need galleries to help them sell their art - NFTs are bought and sold, i.e. traded, on platforms like Opensea, mostly within the crypto community.
