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Please find a short article by Greg Mullin below.
Instagram has opened a whole new world in relation to art enthusiasts and for consumers looking to collect art to enjoy and for investment.
It is an ideal and easily accessible platform to view art from a new generation of young, diverse and emerging artists from around the world. Many of the people looking to collect and invest in this art are excited by these up-and-coming artists who have the same background and influences that they have and therefore the art resonates with them even more. This means that the art audience has expanded as those who may not have previously viewed and collected art, now have the opportunity to easily purchase a piece that they enjoy.
Traditionally, the art world has been seen as hard to break into unless you had the right connections, or you had the right background or studied at the right college. It could now be argued that Instagram has levelled the playing field and an artist’s work has a much better chance to be seen and enjoyed by a large audience.
On Instagram, as well as enjoying access to the art, we can also engage with the artist, ask them questions and learn about their process behind the artwork and of their inspiration and influences. This engagement no doubt helps the artist sell their work, but there is also the chance for them to provide lessons and participate in live sessions for their followers.
The good news for galleries is that they need not be left behind whilst we witness this current evolution and accessibility of online art.
They can and currently are also benefitting from and utilising Instagram. They are creating reels and various creative content to showcase new upcoming artists and exhibitions, reaching a large audience of like-minded creative people.
Galleries will, however, have to adapt to the idea of artists on Instagram being able to reach their audience in a more direct and immediate way. Much like the artists themselves, whilst galleries continue to utilise Instagram in a similar way, to advertise and promote artists and events and create engaging content, there is no reason why they can’t co-exist. Especially as they can use the platform to reach out to new artists and vice versa creating a collaborative experience.
As with social media in general, there is a downside to this, or at least something on which to contemplate.
The ability of artists to take a note of what is ‘trending’ and popular on the platform and copying or emulating similar work to make sales and to try and become more popular. This could be creating a more homogenous art platform, with less individuality.
The idea of selling out is obviously nothing new in the art world. It is important to note however, that we should not always take too much notice of what has ‘likes’ or an artist’s popularity (much like in the real art world) to determine whether a piece of art is worth considering, whether as an art enthusiast, collector or investor.
