Picture by re:artiste (c) 2013; Art Expo, New York, 2013

The art market of today consists of many layers and represented by several types of institutions. You can enjoy art by going to museums. Or you can view and buy artworks at auctions, art fairs and galleries worldwide. You can also attend pop-up shows that give you an opportunity to see a one-day exhibition, meet the artists, and make your purchase. The numerous art fairs began strongly competing with each other in terms of getting more awareness and, as a result, getting more audience – both, galleries and collectors, in order to make more sales and profit. Art fairs have become international (Art Basel, Frieze) and more influencing the world taste. New York art scene is becoming more and more attractive and, I would say, global via hosting not only “the Queen” of the past art fairs, The Armory Show, but also having welcomed the London’s Frieze which challenged the Armory Show as well as other local art monsters to face the changes and think about significant rebranding in order to stay strong at the world art market and attract the audience, aka money. The art businesses of today have to learn and engage more up-to-date technologies to remain competitive and interesting to the audience. For example, quite a conservative and traditional art fair, the Armory Show, commissioned Liz Magic Laser to create a new branding program. As a result, new promo and merchandising materials were introduced to the audience. Modern marketing and branding techniques were implemented to create the merchandising materials, and it tells us that nowadays art and business are going together hand-in-hand.

Besides traditionally renowned art markets, such as France, Switzerland, the United States, and Great Britain, new geographies joined the game. We notice activities in China, India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil. We also see the first attempts in post-soviet Russia to establish its own art market and invest globally. The examples of today’s emerging art markets development can be privately funded efforts in India to build the institutions of contemporary art, such as Devi Art Foundation and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, or huge private investments of Russian billionaires Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova to open the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow in 2008 as well as their co-founding of Artsy, an online resource for viewing and purchasing the world’s art. One more incredible movement is constructing the Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi that is going to be a hub for the world-class museums’ branches such as Louvre or Guggenheim.