Taking AIM!: The Business of Being an Artist Today

The Art Fair Effect

The Art Fair Effect omar lopez-chahoud and ian cofré In Europe, Art Cologne (founded in 1967), Art Basel (founded in 1970), and ARCO Madrid (the Feria Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo, first held in 1982) had already been cultivating unique international stages for contemporary art by the time a small East Coast fair emerged in New York in the mid-1990s. The spiritual predecessor to the Armory Show, The Gramercy International Art Fair, began as a creative response by four contemporary art dealers to a market downturn. Founders Colin de Land, Pat Hearn, Matthew Marks, and Paul Morris invited other dealers and gallerists to show their artists in individual rooms at the Gramercy Hotel, setting one of the most recent and influential precedents to the art fair as we know it. What they could not have predicted then was the art boom that would skew a large segment of the marketplace toward contemporary art, cause an explosion of regional fairs throughout the world, and change their small fair into a leading stop along the global circuit of major fairs. In the past ten years, as art fairs have flourished, they have played a role in the art season similar to that of the Grand Slams on the professional tennis tour. While insiders closely follow the developments of the entire cycle, the fairs are the annual markers everyone tunes in to whatever their levels of dedication the rest of the year. Unlike many other facets of the art world, access and exclusivity are secondary to the size of the crowds (in the tens of thousands attending each major fair), which turn host cities into a chaotic swirl of art appreciation, education, and commerce. The effect on a host city, however temporary, can be described only as transformative—most similar to that of a biennial. Drawing so many satellite fairs, hotel fairs, curated projects, and other events organized because of or in response to a fair, a city finds its cultural climate effectively changed. A great example is Miami and the residual effects it experienced in under a decade. What was to be the inaugural Art Basel Miami 165 166 Omar Lopez-Chahoud and Ian Cofré Beach was canceled because of the events of September 11, 2001, yet the organizers of Fast Forward Miami at the Nash Hotel pressed on to fill the resulting void; over the years, private collectors have opened their collections to the public—notably the de la Cruz, Margulies, and Rubell Family Collections—even starting important nonprofits like The Moore Space. Finally, responding by internationalizing their programming, institutions like the Bass Museum and MOCA North Miami became more visible: all results of a fair now in its eighth edition. At its core, an art fair is a gathering of dealers showing their best, most recent, or remaining inventory. Though a forum for hyperactive commerce, it can transcend this central purpose through creative execution , becoming instrumental in giving broad exposure to emerging and underrepresented artists. Speaking to directors from three leading art fairs around the world revealed a range of approaches and how geographically diverse they can be. The participants included Annette Schönholzer and Marc Spiegler (Art Basel, Switzerland and Miami), Amanda Coulson, VOLTA (Basel, Switzerland and New York), and Zélika Garcı́a (Zona MACO, Mexico City). The Prerequisites OMAR LOPEZ-CHAHOUD AND IAN COFRÉ: How is your art fair different from other art fairs? ANNETTE SCHÖNHOLZER: Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach present artworks from 1900 to today. Different sectors provide platforms for a wide variety in formats and media—aside from the classic gallery stands. For example, large-scale formats are presented at Art Unlimited , and young galleries can present one-person shows at Art Statements (Art Basel) and Art Positions (Art Basel Miami Beach). MARC SPIEGLER: Both shows stage panel discussions on timely topics in the art world. The Art Basel Conversations in the morning offer firsthand information on various aspects regarding art collecting, production , or exhibition-making from leading personalities of the international art world. In the past, we had speakers such as Hans Ulrich Obrist, Glenn Lowry, Paul McCarthy, Marina Abramović, Eugenio Lopez, Maja Hoffmann, Jeff Koons, Norman Rosenthal, Ai Weiwei, RoseLee Goldberg, Jeffrey Deitch, and many more. Art Salon includes more informal discussions and book presentations every day in the afternoon. The Art Fair Effect 167 AMANDA COULSON: At VOLTA we only work with...