Art market goes virtual - VIP Art Fair

Virtual, digital, online, and interactive: The VIP Art Fair is the very first virtual art fair and it just started! 138 galleries from 30 countries, with more than 2,000 artists and 7,500 artworks are represented in three online exhibition halls: VIP Premier, VIP Focus and VIP Emerging. Navigation through the fair is easy, you can select galleries by locations, or search by artist and artwork medium.

I was surprised that 360 artworks were photographs; with such “old masters” like Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Thomas Struth; but also emerging artists like Etienne Chambaud, Brendan Fowler, William Hunt and Kim Yunho are represented. The only Canadian gallery that has a virtual booth at the art fair is Corkin Gallery, Toronto.

Unfortunately, I cannot show a screen shot of the online art fair here, because it's all protected by copyright. But you can image a website with lists of artworks, artists or galleries; and visiting a booth means you will see the artworks from different perspectives and get some further information about the artists, the technical data of the artworks etc. If you zoom in, you can examine details of a painting’s surface, get multiple views of a three-dimensional work, and watch videos of a multimedia piece. This sounds great, but I think you will still miss the haptic quality of the artworks, also the chatting with other visitors around you, and the direct participation at this event.

Quiet a contrast is a regular art fair with the excitement to discover art, and actually TO BE THERE! The photo shows visitors at the documenta 12, in Kassel, Germany. (I know, the documenta is no art fair, it's an international exhibition of modern and contemporary art. But you will get from that photo what I mean with excitement and participation.) This won't be possible with digital art fairs like the VIP art fair when you just sit isolated in front of you computer.

By the way, to see price ranges and chat with gallery staff – that means make contact if you want to acquire an artwork – you need to upgrade to a VIP. And of course, than you have to pay for it! On January 22 and 23 it was $100 and thereafter $20. The price range for the artworks is huge: more than 50 works are priced over $ 1 Million US, more than 100 artworks are valued at less than $ 5,000. But browsing is free; so take your chance!

Facts:
VIP Art Fair
January 22 to January 30, 2011
For tickets you need to request an invitation (it took me 24 hours to get mine, so hurry up)
VIP art fair