Affordable Art Fair numbers fall short

Affordable Art Fair numbers fall short

The first of the Affordable Art Fair's two annual editions in Singapore for this year brought in $2.8 million in sales, a dip from last year's edition that signals the saturation of the art market here, as more fairs open while galleries shutter.

The figures notched by the three-day fair that ended on Sunday were lower than the initial projection of 14,000 visitors and earnings of more than $4 million that fair organisers had given Life! at a media preview last Thursday.

Visitor footfall stood at 13,400, a slight bump from last year's May edition, which pulled in 13,300 visitors. But sales then amounted to more than $3.7 million.

The fair's director Alan Koh, 32, said in a press statement that the lower sales figures "could be attributed in part to the smaller number of galleries this year".

Seventy-four galleries from 21 countries took part in the latest edition of the fair here last week, as compared to 82 galleries in the 2014 May edition.

In fact, the previous edition of the Affordable Art Fair competed with two other ongoing art fairs last November. In total, there were nine such events held last year.

Industry insiders say the growth of such commercial fairs reinforces the trend that some buyers here prefer to shop at art fairs rather than buy directly from galleries, five of which are exiting the three-year-old Gillman Barracks art cluster due to poor sales.

Founder of Y2Arts Ken Chang, who has taken part in the fair since 2012, says: "Fairs are a one-stop place for new buyers as there's more variety. But regular collectors come back to the gallery all year round as they know we carry other works. At fairs, each gallery has limited wall space."

His gallery reported about $40,000 in sales, with the top-selling piece being an acrylic and oil on canvas painting by Chinese artist Ocean Wang that sold for $5,000.

The Affordable Art Fair is held in 11 countries worldwide, and more than once annually in art capitals such as London and New York. Organisers decided last year to make the Singapore fair a biannual event due to "steady growth in the past five years", says the fair's chief executive Will Ramsay, who is based in Britain.

"We've more galleries which want to participate in the fair and bring in new artists... as for the other art fairs, I think there will be a natural filtering as to which ones succeed and which ones, sadly, don't," he tells Life!.

But he dismisses the notion that the spike in art fairs has torpedoed business for galleries here.

He explains: "Art fairs create a focus for the galleries during the week that the fair is on. I own a gallery myself and it's very hard to get people to come back after a few visits as they get bored.

"For Gillman Barracks, of course, not everything works straightaway... but it should be seen as positive, not negative, that it exists at all, that the Government has created it and that other galleries are succeeding."

Response to last year's two editions, especially the November one, was mixed, with some participating galleries unable to recoup costs although overall visitor and sales figures were up.

Says Mr Koh: "We are the entry point for new collectors - they form 60 per cent of our visitors. I don't think we've touched everyone yet, so having two fairs a year is an initiative we want to keep doing."

To this end, the fair introduced new features such as a personal shopper scheme to help first-time buyers.

On top of live art demonstrations such as print-making, this year's fair also put up an SG50 wall featuring 50 works from 50 artists, each priced at $500.

This seemed to be a hit with visitors, with some pieces snapped up at the private viewing event last Thursday before the fair opened to the public.

One of the first buyers was Ms Grace Yeo, 33, who picked up two $500 pieces.

"I like the fact that the proceeds will go to charity. That's meaningful. I feel we should have more local artists at this fair, so Singaporeans can support our own original art," says Ms Yeo, who works in private banking.

Singapore galleries made up the biggest contingent at last week's fair, with 28 of them. The next biggest group of exhibitors were the 15 from South Korea, up from one when the fair first started here, reflecting the Hallyu wave that has swept through Asia in recent years. The fair will launch its first edition in Seoul this September.

Business development director Aileen Neoh, 38, who has collected art for more than 10 years, thinks that the growing interest in South Korean art here is due to its "unique" nature.

"They tend to have a modern take on things. With South Korean art, you can recognise it's from the country straightaway, whereas with some South-east Asian works, there is a tendency to mimic European art," she says.

Curator Kim So Jeong from South Korea's Gallery Gabi says it sold works by mainly emerging contemporary Korean artists such as Cho Yi Kyung and Ko Won Tae.

She says: "Affordable art is on the rise in South Korea and fairs like these are great for new artists who can't compete with established ones. The crowd's a lot more than we expected. On Friday alone, we made about $12,000."

Other local galleries such as The Art Fellas, Y2Arts and Art Porters, which have showcased at the fair previously, fared well from the get-go and gained momentum as families and tourists alike poured in over the weekend.

Co-founder of The Art Fellas Cruz Phua said his gallery made about $90,000, up from last November's edition's earnings of about $70,000. His top-selling work was a $9,800 acrylic on canvas painting by Singaporean artist Yeo Siak Goon.

But some galleries were not as fortunate. Mr Norberts Samulis, owner of gallery Antonia, which specialises in 20th-century contemporary art by Latvian artists and made its debut at the fair last week, closed with only about $5,000 in sales.

"There could have be better advertising of the fair. But it's okay for the first time, even though I made a loss. I may come back next time as there was some interest," he says.

jianxuan@sph.com.sg


This article was first published on April 21, 2015.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.