By Andrew Russeth 4/02 10:15am

The Internet

Artspace cofounders Vroom and Levene. (Courtesy PMC)

Artspace Acquires VIP Art

Gallerist has learned that Artspace, a website launched in 2011 that facilitates online sales for more than 100 galleries and nonprofit organizations, has agreed to acquire VIP Art, an art-selling website started by dealers James and Jane Cohan and investors Jonas and Alessandra Almgren as the VIP Art Fair that same year. Though neither side would discuss details, the deal has Artspace taking on VIP’s small staff and Mr. Cohan joining Artspace’s advisory board. Read More

By Rozalia Jovanovic 6/05/12 5:34pm

Art Fairs

Nicole Maloof, Yale University School of Art, 'Monkey,' 2012 (Courtesy the artist and VIP MFA)

Young and Fair: VIP Art Fair Puts MFAs’ Artworks up for Sale Online

It’s late spring, time once again for the age-old tradition of the MFA thesis exhibition. Graduating art school students put on a final show of their work, in a rite of passage that marks the beginning of their lives as officially accredited artists, with all the struggles that entails: finding a studio, finding a gallery. The thesis shows, at least at the top-end schools like Columbia, Hunter and Yale, have also become a way for collectors and dealers to sniff out talent. It’s just a matter of making all those trips to all those schools. As of last week, there’s a brand new twist on the MFA thesis show, one that doesn’t involve any schlepping. VIP MFA, which launched last Friday, is the first-ever juried art fair that gives arts professionals and collectors a crack at the new talent emerging from 58 art schools around the world, from Manhattan to Mumbai—and it happens entirely online. Read More

By Rozalia Jovanovic 4/10/12 6:02pm

Art Fairs

Screen shot 2012-04-10 at 5.31.39 PM

VIP MFA Gives Students Chance to Launch Themselves Into the Art World

As art students around the country and internationally are gearing up for their MFA thesis exhibitions, the VIP MFA Art Fair will give those same students a chance to join a juried online contemporary art fair. For one-week, from June 1-8, VIP MFA Art Fair, brought to you by the people behind the online fairs VIP Art Fair, VIP Paper and VIP Photo, will present an online event made just for graduate students and recent alums itching to make their first big splash in the art world, online. Why wait for a gallery to come to you? As its poster advertises, “Apply Now and Launch Yourself Into the Art World.” Read More

By GalleristNY 3/07/12 10:07am

vips

Where is your name?

What’s in Your Wallet?

Pick a card, any card! Well, maybe not any card.

This post’s for those of you who are interested in art fair sociology and, let’s say, hierarchies. Paging Thorstein Veblen in the afterlife, here we wade into the waters of the leisure classes and their various entry points into conspicuous consumption. Last night, wandering the tony aisles of the Art Show, the week’s Upper East Side fair, we ran into an acquaintance who displayed for us the three–well, we only know of three anyhow!–VIP cards given out by the Armory Show. Which opens today–to VIPs! and, er, the press… (The Observer‘s shoe can be seen in the lower right, but is not germane here.) Read More

By Dan Duray 1/09/12 1:21pm

fairs

A screen capture from VIP 1.0.

Notorious VIP: After a Stumble, an Online Art Fair Embraces Its Tech Side

Let’s assume for a moment that Amazon.com is the best way to sell something to someone else online, the Platonic ideal of website retail. Imagine a version of Amazon.com that exists for just one week a year and requires you to have a little instant message conversation with a salesman as the first step to any transaction. If he likes you, or you’re known to him, he might take you to a “private room,” identical to any other inventory page, but where they keep the really good thriller novels. Fair warning! This version of Amazon.com has a reputation for being a little quirky technically as well. The chat function isn’t reliable, and the whole site once had to be taken offline for several hours, during that week of its existence. Read More

By Andrew Russeth 12/19/11 2:57pm

Art Fairs

A view of Massimo de Carlo's booth at VIP 1.0 (VIP Art Fair)

VIP Art Fair, Promising Improved Service, Announces 2012 Exhibitor List

The online-only VIP Art Fair, which suffered from some technical problems in its debut early this year, has released a list of 115 galleries that have opted to participate in its second edition, a total that is down slightly from the 139 it signed for its inaugural edition. VIP 2.0, which stands for “viewing in private” and was started by Chelsea dealer James Cohan and Internet entrepreneur Jonas Almgren, will run next year from Feb. 3 through Feb. 8. Read More