As an artist and a lifelong trader in the business end of art, I sometimes wonder about the extensive changes unfolding within the art industry itself.
In recent years digital art has become increasingly important within the greater sphere of art, and NFTs have started to occupy an ever greater slice of the art market.
Beyond that, more and more art is now either created by AI or "AI assisted" in some way.
Even back when we had our local gallery in the brick-and-mortar sense, we were already seeing a trend towards digital art, opening up the whole question of how it was owned, marketed and collected.
Of course it's easy to just say "well, people are always going to want to have physical art" but let's take a deeper look at how even that trend is changing... on account of changing preferences and changing demographics.
Rise of the Digital Nomad
We now live in a world that includes greater and greater numbers of so-called "digital nomads;" people who don't actually live in a place permanently and thus don't actually have walls or shelves that they are going to put permanent art on.
Living in a small port city, we saw many come through our space... with everything they owned in a backpack/suitcase and a computer bag.
They were definitely still art lovers but digital art was the only "fit" for their lifestyles.
The Cost of Housing
We also seem to be living in a time where fewer and fewer people can actually afford to buy homes, and thus — if you don't own a home and you instead just live in a place you rent and likely will be moving around from on a regular basis — are you actually going to be as inclined to buy art to decorate your place as in times past?
The reason I consider this trend is that typically we treat rented spaces more like hotel rooms than we treat them like our actual homes. Homes tend to be a lot more permanent and settled in people's minds... and that also informs our choices and spending habits.
Which brings me to speculating on the possibility that — because the entire definition of what "home" means is changing — we'll likely be looking at a protracted downtrend for traditional art that exists in physical space.
Not saying there are fewer art dollars on the market, just commenting on where they are being spent.
I have noticed — even with my own art — that it is getting harder and harder to sell. More and more often I hear variations on the words "I just don't have space because I'm in a small space," or people are living in a van or an RV or on a boat and thus they don't really have a place for physical art.
Elite Habits
Meanwhile, the "elite" of our world — who do have mansions with lots of wall space and shelf space — seem to be collecting art of the extremely famous rather than the work of the up and coming. This is a completely different branch of the art market where we are looking at art more as investment and status symbol, than art you buy simply because you love to look at it and go "wow, this really appeals to me!"
It all just makes me speculate on what the future of physical art might be and whether the whole idea of "being an artist" who actually executes work in physical space is on the way out much like typesetting was, a few decades ago.
In fact that metaphor holds true to some degree because the movement from physical typesetting to digital print media didn't mean we were getting rid of writing, it simply meant we were getting rid of how we processed it. Here, I'm also not suggesting that we're getting rid of art and losing interest in art I'm simply suggesting that we are changing how we're handling it.
In both cases, it was a new way of handling something that had existed for 100 of years that got changed by the digital age.
Regardless, it will be very interesting to see how it all unfolds, especially for those of us who have been part of the art world for a long time, already!
Thanks for visiting, and feel free to leave a comment — engagement is always welcome!
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All images are our own, unless otherwise attributed.
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