“I had specific, personal reasons for closing my gallery, but I also saw ominous, unavoidable changes in the art market which are analogous to changes in the broader economy.
First, abundance plagues our industry. In January 2016, I was discussing the over-saturation of artists with some clients. Forty minutes later, one checked her phone and realized she’d gotten no less than ten sales offers during the time we’d been talking. One PDF every four minutes. In January.
The globalization of the art world means that galleries have contact information for the same set of collectors, who are then deluged with offers. I know a number of collectors have been so discouraged by the volume of offers that they just stopped buying. Collecting involves varying amounts of emotion and fantasy which are destroyed by the kryptonite of Too Much, as oversaturation becomes the defining feature of our entire economy….
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