How's VIP Treating You? What Collectors, Dealers, and Artists Have to Say About the Online Fair
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- How's VIP Treating You? What Collectors, Dealers, and Artists Have to Say About the Online Fair
The online-only VIP Art Fair, running February 3 through 8, has so far enjoyed a technologically improved, buzzy second edition.
Yet now that the technical glitches are out of the way, the real question occurs: Can an online interface, however slick, convince the art world that the Internet can work as a venue for art? Few activities are more intimately related to actual physical experience than art viewing, and a successful Internet art fair might just mark the advent of a whole new mindset about how art works.
To begin to answer this question, over the last few days ARTINFO has spoken with a variety of members of three of VIP’s potential audiences — collectors, dealers, and artists — to find out how the fair is changing the way they view art.
COLLECTORS
With last year’s technological glitches under control, the collectors we talked to say they were able to enjoy the real perks of an online art fair during VIP 2.0. Most appreciated how the Internet platform offers the ability to browse hundreds of galleries from the comfort of their own homes, and how VIP facilitates the discovery of new artists outside the frenetic atmosphere of an art fair. “The art fair calendar is quite relentless and finding the time to fly to London, New York, or Mumbai can be a challenge,” said Farhad Farjam, founder of the Dubai-based private museum the Farjam Collection. “It is a great opportunity to browse artwork at your leisure, and to spend time viewing pieces without any pressure to commit.”
The online component also offers the savvy collector an opportunity for side-by-side comparisons. “You have the ability to save the works you like to ‘my collection’ — it’s a great way to compare works from different galleries and decide what you like best,” explained New York- and Aspen-based collector Amy Phelan, who noted that Galerie Thaddeus Ropac’s rotating daily program and artist Yinka Shonibare’s personalized tour for VIP were among her favorite elements of this year’s event.
Still, aspects of the digital platform still aren’t entirely comfortable for some potential buyers. “At physical art fairs I am quite open to new artists and often a piece by an artist I may never have considered previously will catch my eye," said Farjam. "At VIP I will buy art only by artists with whom I am very well acquainted, so that I have a clear idea about how the piece will look in reality and how it will interact with my collection as a whole.” He added that he is particularly hesitant to buy sculpture online, “as it is impossible to visualise exactly how the piece interacts with the space around it, which is, after all, the essence of the medium.”
Another way in which VIP can never compare to real art fairs? Personal interaction. “I miss the interaction with gallerists and artists that contributes to the atmosphere of art fairs,” Farjam said. “If I see something I am interested in, I am more inclined to call the gallery directly rather than using the online chat system, which feels slightly impersonal.”
DEALERS
Whether galleries are making money off VIP remains an open question until fair closes on February 8, but many dealers do say that there are benefits to exhibiting at an online art fair beyond the financial payoff. Floor Wullems, director of Amsterdam gallery Annet Gelinke, was particularly interested in the statistics coming to her gallery about who was visiting, where they were from (mostly the U.S., she reported), and what they were looking at. "We've had 2,260 visitors so far, of which a quarter shared their info with us, meaning that we have their contact details," she said.
Web traffic, of course, doesn't necessarily help sales — no more so than visitors to a physical art gallery. Magdalena Sawon of New York's Postmasters Gallery noted, "You have general stats about how many people 'visit' the booth, but unless they initiate contact you just sit and wait.”
Some dealers are happy to be freed of space constraints and are proudly mounting their largest works. New York dealer Leila Heller noted that she has almost all of her biggest pieces on display: "At a [regular] art fair we can only show one monumental work — here we can show 20," she said. But another New York dealer, Ed Winkleman, found out via trial and error that bigger isn't always better. Paintings, prints, and other flat works tend to get the most views because the JPEG view is closer to reality than a sculpture or other three-dimensional work, he explained. "Installation-type works don't get as many hits.”
In one category of art, the Internet offers a definite advantage over display at a traditional fair. Dealers report that it is vastly more effective to display video work at VIP than at a traditional fair, where booths must have proper lighting and access to electrical outlets. Sawon said she was "most proud of the video — VIP is uniquely suited to showcase video work which often gets lost in physical fairs."
Still, gallerists echoed Farjam in noting that VIP lacked a human element. While some were frustrated by the failure of the chat function at last year’s fair (it’s dysfunction was reportedly one reason for VIP’s 50 percent refund to exhibitors), some gallerists report the now-working chat function is going unused. Wullems told ARTINFO that people who were interested in work preferred to contact the gallery via email, and only a few had made use of the chat function.
New York gallery owner Leo Koenig said he was impressed with the fair's technology, but the people he ended up chatting with were mostly collectors he had worked with before. He added that an online chat could only take him so far. "The transaction actually gets wrapped up the old fashioned way... No Pay Pal here," he said.
Photo: Adrian Paci's "Centro di Permanenza temporanea," 2009, is exhibited by Peter Blum Gallery in the VIP Art Fair. Courtesy the Artist and Peter Blum Gallery, New York.
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