QUISQUEYA HENRIQUEZ
Show: 7.1
Art
QUISQUEYA HENRIQUEZ
wordsby nicholas brown imagescourtesy david castillo gallery
By the time this issue hits the rack, it will be the worst time in decades to be an art dealer. In the wake of the global financial crisis, there was an initial calm in the art world, as people began to speculate just how long it could remain unaffected by the events on Wall Street. But on December 3, 2008, when I entered the exhibition centre at Art Basel Miami – North America’s answer to Switzerland’s Art Basel, the largest and most prestigious international art fair – things were looking decidedly grim. Functioning as both a trade show and a site of quick commerce, where eager buyers line up to view booths manned by dealers looking to market and sell works by leading international artists, art fairs are costly to participate in but promise massive sales for savvy salespeople. This year rumours swirled: nothing was selling, it was a buyer’s market for those collectors that were still in the game (ie. no more hedge fund investors), and the massive cost of participating was bringing diminished returns. But outside of the convention centre, others were content with displaying their artists without much care for the short-game tactics of the main fair.
