A fair account

The Art Newspaper has just published a long report on art fair biz over the ten years 2005-2015. And guess what? Yep, it’s a growth industry. Close to home, the number of Asia Pacific fairs have jumped 86 percent to a total of 21, admittedly from a smaller base but it is an indicator and it’s roaring compared to 47 percent growth over the same period in the US. But when it comes to collectors apparently the West still rules with American and European fairs being the favourites. When it came to picking the top 40, just on 80 percent were from the US (11) and Europe (21). That means collectors give just two art fairs below the equator the big tick. No, not you Australia or you Auckland. Meanwhile the fastest growing art cities are cited as Tokyo, Mexico City, Istanbul, Seoul, Singapore and Shanghai. Here’s hoping the spread of the 2026 report is going to be somewhat different.

And how much do these art fairs cost? The average price for a booth is just under $1,000 per m2 with the most expensive being just over $2,000. And how many art fairs are there? At the end of the report there’s a list of all the art fairs slated for 2016-2017. There are 320 of them. You can read the full report here

Cartoon: The brilliant Pablo Helguera