The Transatlantic Conversation
Having opened a London gallery in Mayfair last summer – and after running a successful New York gallery since 2016 –Iamoftenaskedaboutthedifferences between the two markets. The truth, first and foremost, is that the art market has always been international. All peoples in all eras have worshipped beauty and sought out the symbolic and mysterious significance of art, as the history of great archaeological finds and their distant origins demonstrates. That international appeal only became more pronounced after the internet came into public use in early 1993. Art, mostly a non-verbal form of expression, will always have its own potent, universal appeal.
Nonetheless, there are of course geographic specificities to any city or country’s artistic tastes and appetites. As a gallerist, it would be foolish to ignore this and to fail to create a fine-tuned, regionally-specific exhibition programme, not only for New York and London but for any other city we may operate in.
New York people also ask if London is as internationally-relevant as in pre-Brexit times. The answer is a resounding ‘Yes’. Why else would we choose the UK capital as our second home? Recent years have shown that the city is resilient and its market holding up well. Whilst proof of success is traditionally measured by artworks’ sale prices at major auction houses, London is also for us about the strength of emerging artists in the primary market. Alongside the ‘bright young things’, whose work will always attract column inches, the UK is particularly good for artists whose careers have historically been neglected or under-appreciated.
New York represents a certain extreme in terms of internationalism, whilst the UK, although slightly more inward-looking, is nonetheless also a great strategic base for growing relationships with British and other European artists - as important to a gallery’s success as relationships with collectors, scholars and art institutions.
Art Hotspots
Business hotspots for art don’t always align with creative hubs. Berlin is a classic example. The city boasts a huge pool of talent but remains a notoriously difficult place to sell. This is despite having key elements for success in place, including renowned institutions, affordable rents for artists and an open, inclusive social culture. The most buzzing new art destination in Europe right now is Milan, where a number of major players are opening galleries. The real growth area, however, from a global perspective, is Asia.
The changing status of Hong Kong’s governance paused its dominance of the Asian art market for a while. The Chinese Special Administrative Region is still a tax haven and a prime locus for business, however, so it will absolutely rise again. Seoul and South Korea have been gaining in stature for the past few years, whilst Singapore, never traditionally an art centre, is also becoming a strong new market. Mainland China continues to grow in significance, as does India, with the net global impact of the rise of Eastern markets leading to the increased visibility and value of art and artists of Asian provenance.
The Changing Nature of Art Galleries
The art market has been hugely changed by the rise of online platforms, enabling artists in their early stages to self-manage in terms of providing their own ‘shop windows’ and promotion via social media.
Galleries have had to change in response. Whilst the old exclusive artist-gallery relationship still exists, in some cases representation is now shared with artists’ agents. Eventually, as artists grow in stature, a fuller team becomes necessary and the gallery will then always have a role. Experiencing art in person will remain more powerful than seeing it on a screen, where art can easily be represented, but where scale, texture, colour and emotional impact are all flattened – at least to some degree.
Galleries are busy evolving other business methods, offering different price points for different demographic groups, for example, and selling not only originals but limited edition print drops, with social media used to create an appetite for time-limited exclusivity in the same way a fashion brand might operate.
Galleries that once focused on a single target buyer typology are now leveraging many different groups, from investors and institutions to museums, in addition to new and established private collectors. Galleries are capital-intensive to operate and must continue to innovate. This includes initiatives such as artworks being used as collateral by investors to raise funds – or the rental model economy, where corporations hire art for their walls for a minimum period and then rotate selections. New ideas are coming into play too, including fractionalisation, where an artwork purchase is broken into smaller units and people can choose between owning 1% of a Picasso, say, or 50% of a newer, less-known artist.
All business is about clear-sightedness and weighing- up market threats and opportunities. Whilst the online world means artists are diversifying their routes to market, galleries are similarly diversifying how people buy and invest in art. We continue to love and appreciate art – but also to seek out the ways in which it can form part of many different people’s lives.
By Marcelo Zimmler, Founder, Upsilon Gallery, London and New York