The Tamesis
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, art news Newsletter about the art market and beyond. Register here Receive it every Wednesday.
Industry trends
Patron Gallery adds Wang Miao to its roster: The Chicago-based painter will appear alongside Alice Tippett in a two-artist talk at the Chicago World’s Fair next week.
Open Restitution Africa launches AI-driven reparations data platform: The initiative releases a publicly accessible bilingual database as well as an artificial intelligence tool that allows communities, researchers and cultural professionals to query archives for practical guidance on the restitution process.
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Jessica Silverman adds Koak to her list: The California-based New Pop painter will have her first solo exhibition at a San Francisco gallery in March 2027. A selection of her work will be on display at the Chicago Expo next week.
Sundaram Tagore Gallery opens space in London: The gallery, known for its focus on overseas artists with spaces in New York and Singapore, will open a multi-level space on Pall Mall that will include two levels of exhibition space, a private viewing room and a screening and performance space.
Anat Ebgi adds Veronica Fernandez to its roster: The Los Angeles-based painter has previously exhibited with Night Gallery, Pippy Houldsworth and Thierry Goldberg. Her solo exhibition, “Prey,” will be on view through April 4 at the gallery’s Wilshire Boulevard space.
The big number: $164.9 million.
That’s the total (in U.S. dollars) from the spring marquee sales held by Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips in Hong Kong last week. The results marked a significant rebound from last fall’s $136.3 million, the lowest total in eight years, and also exceeded last spring’s comparable total of $139.9 million.
Read this.
Josh Kline, one of our great observers of the recession, will write the definitive pamphlet on how the New York art world is failing artists. On social media this week, all the New York artist could talk about was “New York Real Estate and the Destruction of American Art,” his essay for the latest issue of an academic journal October It attributes the national arts crisis felt since the pandemic to rising costs for Manhattan apartments, studios and galleries. Klein points pointedly that being an artist in New York today is “totally unsustainable” and that the market is only a small factor in that. Klein talks about who is really benefiting from New York’s commercial galleries at the moment: “Those lucky few artists whose careers are often developed at great financial risk by young galleries who are unable to fully capitalize on their success. As their most financially successful artists leave for baby boomer galleries, there is no possibility for Gen X or Millennial galleries to grow or compete with their predecessors.” —Alex Greenberg, Senior Editor
