2014 Art Fair Report

Skate's just published its global art fair report and the conclusion is that after many years of growth, attendance is down in 2014.  The reports notes 2014 attendance dropped by 7.4% of the tracked shows. Follow the source link to read the executive summary of the report or to purchase the full report ($500.00).

Skate's reports

Global art fairs are for art trade what over-the-counter (OTC) is for stock trading – they provide home for art trading outside auction rooms, with no need to disclose art prices paid and no tangible trace of trading day success (unlike sell through rate at an auction). Designed for modern day, global collectors, art fairs revolutionized OTC art trade by bringing galleries to art buyers within well-defined locations and dates.

Well, the heyday of art fairs seems to be over. Since Skate’s started tracking art fairs attendance numbers in 2007, the year of 2014 was the first when the total attendance for top 20 art fairs in established collectors markets declined on year to year basis. In 2014 top 20 art fairs in established collectors markets saw attendance of 1,032,792, that is 7.4% decline to the year 2013.

Call it art fairs fatigue, or art fairs’ own policy to look for quality over quantity, or a mounting threat from online art trade to art fairs as dominant OTC art trade format, the trend is there. The flagship fairs of global calendar such Art Basel Miami Beach, TEFAF and Paris Photo all posted audience decline in 2014, particularly notable since those fairs serve largely different segments of global art trade.

Skate’s ranking of top 20 art fairs in established collectors market is presented in the Exhibit 1, Swiss MCH Group comes out strongly as the leading global operator having five of its trade shows on the list.

Skate’s on purpose ranks separately art fairs in established collectors markets (North America, European Union including UK and Hong Kong) and art fairs at the new (frontier) markets where attendance numbers are often less reliable and sometimes outright confusing. Skate’s Art Fairs Report provides for the detailed ranking of top art fairs in frontiers market, the top three shows are listed in the Exhibit 2.

Source: Skate's