Making money with artists hope
A few days ago, a client of us was contacted that he could participate in an exhibition in Paris for free. But then it turned out that it was a promotion from Artboxy to sell their services afterwards. To be fair, it only costs 1 euro a day if you spend 365 euros upfront for the whole year, otherwise a monthly rate of 49 euro. But what do you actually get for it? Yes, it sounds good at first glance and very tempting for many artists: as an artist, you open an account on the platform and are briefly checked to see if your art is at a certain level. The hurdles are super low, as you can quickly see from the selection of artists. Then you upload your art and can immediately take part in exhibitions (art fairs organized by Artbox) and be shown via monitor in partner galleries. In addition, you also receive photos from the monitor in the gallery with your work plus an exhibition certificate. Yes, guys, it sounds great if you don't know your way around as an artist. But if you take a closer look at the whole thing researched by us, then things look completely different. In the international second art market (the first art market consists of art school graduates and art stars) are an incredible number of hobby artists who are all clamoring for attention. Then there are a few very talented amateur artists and a few self-taught professional artists. And then there are the artists with art academy degrees, who we're not talking about here because they don't need such services. So, the market and the need for art promotion and marketing for hobby and many amateur artists is huge. It's a goldmine! Service providers like Artbox/Artboxy earn their living from it and from the hope of many artists to finally be discovered and sell. What exactly do you get from Artboxy: 1. you can not link your website or your social media page in your Artboxy account which is a no-go. However, this is extremely important for your marketing and the search engine (backlink). 2. you pay 365 euros in advance with no prospect of sale. What use are exhibition certificates if you are shown on a monitor (in an empty gallery) with dozens of artists and have no idea whether your artwork can be properly perceived? An exhibition certificate is just window dressing if your art is ordinary. Even if it's super good, it won't do you any good if you don't have a management/gallerist who puts their heart and soul into marketing your art. A good gallerist will immediately see through your exhibition. The chance of being discovered or selling something this way is very, very small. What most amateur and hobby artists need first is a fair assessment of their art and tips on how they can improve. 3. Artboxy is a service for mediocre exhibition opportunities and a business model that is not really in tune with the times. They don't even offer a platform for video artists. 4. We took a close look at the galleries where any artist who has opened an account with Artboxy can exhibit via monitor. What we found out is that 2 galleries obviously belong to Artboxy themselves but have a different name. The other two galleries in Berlin and Dubai do not exhibit Artboxy artists at all. At least we couldn't see anything about them on their websites. These galleries have a very select portfolio and the gallery in Berlin is owned by an artist who exhibits herself. Very dubious.
Conclusion: Artboxy itself is an art-marketing-business-model and only helps the owners. It will only be useful for those artists who are present at the Artbox ArtFairs and exhibitions and know how to market themselves by networking directly with art enthusiasts. Artboxy serves its own interests first and foremost, and that is sales with the hopes of artists of the second market.
28 septembre 2024
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