Year 2020 has seen an unprecedented e-commerce boom, making Jeff Bezos one of the richest men on the planet as shopping was taking place online due to the lockdown restrictions.
The Fine Art industry, which is traditionally “lagging behind” the rest of the progressive tech-savvy economies, has been seen catching up with the flow.
According to the Artsy.net report, the largest e-commerce platform providing a space for galleries to exhibit and sell their inventory online, their staff saw “e-commerce functionality increase 136.3% and the number of unique buyers using that functionality surge 247.7%”. What a surge!
With ever more collectors preferring to buy online, the trajectory that is likely to carry on for the post-pandemic times as well as the nearest future, e-commerce giants like Artsy start to recognise the necessity of data disclosure to attract a new generation of buyers, who are looking for transparency and accountability. Easy-to-digest market analytics is what drives the decision-making in digital natives, given the art market knowledge in the habitual order of business, is only reserved to a handful of experts and insiders.
While the market leaders such as KAWS, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol are leading the charts since years, the barrier to entry is quite steep, along with the uncertainty of the ceiling for the demand (it can’t grow forever can it?) — can we get a peak into who could be the next art market star among the emerging or mid-career artists. In a nutshell, an artist who is distinguished enough for have a demand for their work, but still not too sought-after by the mass public: a sort of a hidden gem.
Now, it is time to do your own research, go through the list one by one, find a few favourites and get in line for the precious artworks.
