Art Fair: VIP 2.0- the VIP art fair
The second edition of the VIP art fair 2012 has started this week and is taking place until February 8th. VIP 2.0, is the only art fair that takes place exclusively online.
Over 115 emerging and established galleries from all the over world are participating.
The long list of exhibitors includes Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv which is showing a “focus” booth concentrating on the artist Dor Guez (b. Jerusalem).
I was seriously impressed by the quality of the images, you can zoom in and see tiny details of the art works and many additional views. A very positive change from the first edition which had many technical issues, the majority of which seem to have been resolved.
Other cool features and options include the “Discussions” category with many video interviews of gallerists, collectors, artists and so on:
The “Insider tours”, where you can see tours curated by leading figures from the art world with their personal remarks and where you can also make your own tour/build your collection:
One artist that I discovered and found interesting in the fair, at the Rhizome booth, is the new media artist Rafael Rozendaal who uses the internet as the canvas for his works which are actually websites, creating a mise-en-abyme of the medium itself:
To sum up, I have heard and met people in the art world that are skeptical about the use of internet as a platform to share, see and sell art. People that say that it is even sad that this is the future of seeing art.
Indeed, I think the internet cannot replace the real experience of art at first hand, but it is certainly part of the future, which is already here, and for me is more than exciting. It makes seeing art accesible for all. The VIP succeeds in doing so by giving access to the public to not only the art itself but also to information surrounding it.
ps: I enjoyed this article, a live blogging review of the fair by Michael H. Miller, which made me smile and which you can read here.
pps: I will be checking on the New York blog artfagcity for their reviews of the best and worst booths. should be interesting!