| [2022.02.08] 2022 Art Basel’s Online Fair OVR:2021 개인전 |
FINANCIAL TIMES
East Asian galleries flock to Art Basel’s online fair, OVR:2021
Andrew Russeth FEBRUARY 8 2022
_1.jpg "Untitled, 2021, Acrylic on Canvas, 300x200cm(01)_1.jpg")
Untitled (2021) by Kim Gil-hu at Hakgojae Gallery ⓒ Courtesy the artist and Hakgojae Gallery
“For galleries, one of their greatest responsibilities is making sure that their artists’ works get out there, especially at a time when the usual art programming has been thrown out of the water,” says Adeline Ooi, Asia director for the fair giant Art Basel. The Swiss company has aimed to help them do that during the past topsy-turvy two years by hosting limited-run online viewing rooms (OVRs).
Its latest is OVR:2021, which is devoted to works made last year, and is open to the public from Thursday until Saturday, with an invite-only preview on Wednesday (a dash of exclusivity prevailing even in the digital sphere). Fifty-nine galleries have signed on, with a strong showing of 10 from East Asia, a region where some face extra complications when doing business.
(...)
The potential audience - anyone with a computer and curiosity - is also a draw. In recent viewing rooms, “there were a lot of younger-generation people who had never been to Art Basel Hong Kong or other fairs,” says Yoonsung Stephanie Cho, art fair manager of Seoul’s Hakgojae Gallery, which will show spectral abstract paintings by the Korean artist Kim Gil-hu. Those uncomfortable about talking art live can move at their own pace online while examining prices in the otherwise opaque market. (Art Basel requires that galleries post a price range.)
Kukje has done many OVRs while building up its digital presence, an effort that has made buyers more comfortable acquiring works without seeing them in the flesh. Song says, “While nine out of 10 clients asked to see a work in person before purchasing it pre-pandemic, I’d say that about four of 10 clients ask to see the work today.”
Untitled (2021) by Kim Gil-hu at Hakgojae Gallery ⓒ Courtesy the artist and Hakgojae Gallery
There is a definite desire among dealers to return to regularly scheduled market showcases and a world without cumbersome travel rules, but there is also a sense that OVRs events are here to stay in some form. “They are approaching the utility of physical fairs,” says Jeon of Baton. “I think this type of online fair will continue even if the end of the pandemic is near.”
As technology advances, OVRs may even become a more potent rival to live events. “We are excited for the metaverse,” says Mind Set’s Chu, who suggests that, if it becomes possible at some point to create a fully immersive digital environment which incorporates physical sensations, “I think it could completely replace the physical fair.” (As it is, she will brave the Hong Kong quarantine for Art Basel in May.)
<참고>
