State of the Arts: The Rise of the Living Artist, 2013

By Patricia Frischer

 Buying an art work by an emerging artist is

• a gamble,
• a case of love at first sight
• a genuine commitment

Artists are not making art in San Diego to fill demand. They are passionate about making art even with few sales galleries. They continually find new and non-traditional ways to expose the public to what they create. We do have is an abundance of artists who make art that is easy to like and which enhances lives. A scattering of the best make work that is full of worthy content and which often challenges the viewer.

In San Diego, we don’t seem to have too many collectors that collect just to show off their wealth. Collectors like to meet the artists.  That contact can sway their purchasing decisions because of personality and likeability. We love to see collectors breaking bread with artists and not just thinking of them as investment makers.

But demand is one of the criteria that influences price. Young artist offer the fun of discovery and even the element of the gamble for very reasonable prices. Contemporary art by well know artists is out of the price range of most collectors and that is a new phenomena as we have seen auction figures for live artists skyrocket in the past few years. (Jeff Koons b.1955 sold the highest priced contemporary work this year for approx. $32 million). The amazingly good news is that all boats are rising on the tide and when the prices for contemporary art rises, it rises in all age groups. 

The following are some of our most important venues in San Diego and they are showing local artists.  I take delight that this list includes a very large percentage of women:

Emily Grenader, Jessica Sledge, Joe Yorky at the Athenaeum
Iana Quesnell, Jean Lowe and Doris Bittar at the Women, War and Industry exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art

Catherin Colaw, Linda Kardoff, Allison Renshaw, Julia San Román and Cheryl Tall at the Cannon Art Gallery

Dana Montlack:: Sea of Cortez The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
(Dana Montlack: Sea of Cortez, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego,Review by Cathy Breslaw)
James Enos at Oceanside Museum of Art

SDVAN continues to celebrate the high quality of art in San Diego.

We have updated the 2013 Ten Top Artist and Ten Most Powerful People in the Art World.

You might want to look at our article on Seven Types of Collectors and also Collecting Secrets Revealed, Collecting Emerging Artists and Ten Tips for Collectors.

Your can read all the past State of the Arts addresses by Patricia Frischer at this link.