e-Fair

My first visit at the art fair from my living room started February the 3rd and ended February the 8th, thanks to VIP Art Fair. The website is "Connecting the Worlds Collectors to Leading Art Dealers Online" and my interest brought me on the site almost daily, tagging along collectors, artists, galleries. I am an amateur. Like for any other visit, I started to look at the website to become familiarized with the map of the fair, the galleries, the artists. The map of the fair looks like any other map of a fair: I will not be able to walk along the aisles, just navigate with my mouse.

I can choose to look at the site by galleries (123), artists, size, price range, continent (every continent is represented). I can take a peak at galleries I will most likely never visit in Rio de Janeiro, Beijing, Qatar... All the big galleries are present Pace gallery, Gagosian, White Cube...

Each gallery presents a photograph of the pieces on sale, sometimes several views. The size and material are described and a biography of the artist is attached.

Short videos are available on different topics related to art, I listened to Lowell Pettit at the Marianne Bosky gallery.

One can also follow an insider tour: Pedro Velz from Artnet, or John McEnroe tour, Lowell and courtney Pettit etc....

The pros: cheap, fun , convenient, very relaxing, informative, easy access,

The cons: miss the excitement of going to the fair, discussions, measure and feel the works, few installations, limitation due to two dimensions, size of screen,

Just too business oriented, I feel like starting a shopping cart.

I could upgrade to Elite Access...next year.

VIP Art Fair offers several fairs during the year, next Works on Paper in April, Photographs in July and Contemporary Art in September.