Now is a great time to be an independent artist!
Society is in a chaotic moment of redress and the "art world" is reshaping. Its okay for artists to self-promote and self-represent, thanks to the internet. Artists are finally in position to gain a modicum of control over who gets to be an artist and who gets to define fine art.
It is a popular fiction that success as a fine artist can only be found participating in the traditional art market with its well documented history of sexism, misogyny, racism, ageism and exploitation for profit by everyone promoting the artist (except the artist) with few exceptions.
That many artists practice outside these parameters and are consistently making a comfortable living making new work needs more visibility. Many are not rich nor famous yet sustain a successful practice producing and selling work that for whatever reason fails to resonate with the "art world."
The art world we read about in mainstream media and that we talk about when we talk about buying and selling art is exclusive to a very wealthy group of people. Great monetary values don't always equal great cultural value except to this very wealthy group buying and selling what THEY DECIDE is art. In the past year, that included a questionable Leonardo da Vinci and the first AI-generated painting auctioned at Christies for more than $400,000!
Dialogues about cultural diversity, inclusion and an expanding art public suggest this needs to change. Contemporary arts marketing acknowledges new potential buyers outside this realm and targets a more diverse base with disposable income to introduce to collecting. This can happen
when galleries representing artists and artists representing themselves sell in the same venue.
One such current venture is SuperFine.World, a national network of art fairs featuring galleries, artists representing themselves, and a cap on pricing. SuperFine fairs target the public at large and are set to become the first "recognized" professional fine art venues where anyone can buy art from the artist.
Precedents go back at least to the early 2000's and include Art Off the Main, organized by Loris Crawford who presented international artists and galleries of African descent at the Puck Building in NYC before its' restoration.
This open engagement with the public permits artists to build a constituency of supporters that will follow the artist's career with interest and insight into the way the artist practices art. This consistent exposure over time gives the public agency to decide who can be an artist and what fine art is in this day and age-- the same way it has been decided exclusively by the art world in the past.
Until recently, artists representing themselves were by and large dismissed as decorative and amateur. That's changing. Outreach by museums in neighborhoods and schools has resulted in a bigger and growing art appreciating public. If an artist' goal is to sustain practice through the sale of objects, this is a demographic to seek out and cultivate.
Independent artists and their patrons have an opportunity to be part of a burgeoning movement that will bring new meaning to the words "Public Artists." We live in an age when the course of art and culture does not have to reflect the tastes and opinions of the very wealthy.
Eradicate Cultural Sharecropping!
Public Offering 2019 #BeOneOfThe1000 September 1-30, 2019
