This will be a really quick post (as I’m really busy elsewhere at the moment), but I want to mention the VIP PAPER fair that runs tomorrow through Sunday. It’s an offshoot of the VIP Art Fair online, which began in 2011 and had, as I recall, an improved edition this past winter.
VIP PAPER, to me, is a better idea than that because buying prints and other works on paper on the Internet is probably a better idea than buying other kinds of work – there’s less difference between the representation and the reality, afterall. The galleries involved are a good selection.
But one noteworthy thing is that this is simply the first extension of the VIP fair. In June comes the VIP MFA, a juried fair to launch students into the art market; in July comes VIP PHOTO, and in September comes VIP Vernissage, fueled by the fall openings.
How many fairs can be staged before they all run together? Does it matter? Galleries say they do an increasing amount of business at physical fairs, and can’t afford to stay home (more are starting up, too, but that’s another story). These online VIP fairs may well drive even more business to the web, leaving physical galleries for viewing — and possibly leading eventually to closings or shorter hours.
Second, in the runup to the works-on-paper fair, the VIP group has been posting video “Discussions” — walkthoughs with the likes of Morgan Lehman Gallery and Durham Press. I’m not much of an online video-consumer, but I watched two, and found them to be worth my time (with a little multi-tasking on the side).
 Photo Credits: Courtesy of the VIP Art Fair