Art Business News

WINTER 2012

As the most requested magazine in the industry, Art Business News stays true to its mission of reporting the latest industry news and emerging trends driving the fine art market. ABN: The art industry's news leader since 1977.

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to include the venues as well; addition- ally, Indiewalls now charges venues a service fee for facilitating all of the practical issues relating to the installa- tion of the works. "We create a new dynamic for these venues," Wolf says. "It makes the walls work for them. T ey're not just static, having the same art for fi ve years." It's not diffi cult to see how these two have built their business up so quickly. T ey clearly believe in the product they're providing to the market. "Galleries are important, but they're not the only place to sell artwork," says Grazi. "T ey don't connect with every type of collector. Our work generally AVONE's work hangs in Dream Downtown business instincts, the two began a campaign to sign up as many venues and artists as possible to their service, which they named Indiewalls. T e service Indiewalls provided, as they saw it, was simple enough: T ey would compile a database of artists' works on their Website and sign up venues interested in having artwork for sale on their walls, with an understand- ing that these works would be switched out for new ones from Indiewalls' library within three to six months. Indiewalls' informational cards beside the artworks contain a barcode which enables anyone with a smartphone to purchase them quickly and easily, from right inside the venue; the works are also for sale on the Website. For all this, Indiewalls would take a cut of the sales revenue, which it would share with the artist; the venues would get of-the-moment rotating art exhibited on their walls for free, plus an added amenity for their customers. T e team is currently working on slightly modifying their revenue-sharing model ARTBUSINESSNEWS.COM "GALLERIES ARE IMPORTANT, BUT THEY'RE NOT THE ONLY PLACE TO SELL ARTWORK." falls in the aff ordable art range—under $10,000 apiece. T ere's almost an infi - nite amount of wall space available in New York, and because we're not pay- ing rent for a large space in Chelsea, we can sell stuff on our Website for $300. It's a way for people to start a collection while avoiding going to IKEA and buy- ing a mass-produced print." Grazi isn't kidding about his belief in an infi nite amount of wall space in New York. He began recruiting venues by inquiring at every restaurant, cafe, hotel and bar in his Greenwich Village neigh- borhood and working his way out from there. He found much rejection, but he was fi ne with that. "We want venues to really own the idea," he explains. "We don't want venues who say, 'Yeah, sure, whatever. You can put art on our walls.' I met with a lot of venue owners and asked if they cared about the art on their walls, and a lot said they didn't. So I said, 'Okay, well, thanks for the free whiskey.'" T e same standard applies to In- diewalls' slate of artists, whom the com- pany recruited in a similar fashion— simply by going to gallery openings and on the Internet and reaching out to as many interesting artists as possible. "We can't make this work unless both parties are invested in making this a re- ally interesting experience," Wolf says. "We need people who will say, 'I will push this out into my social channels. I'll take people to lunch in these venues. I want people to come take note of this.' It's not like in the gallery world, where you put your art up and walk away." Indiewalls now has an application process on its site for prospective art- ists; the artists upload three images of their work, and, if chosen, can then Allan Hasty and Joseph Grazi's Kiss above the staircase at Dream Downtown 39

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