Artsy’s new CEO, Jeffrey Yin, has named Los Angeles artist Adrian Kay Wong among those he collects. The narratives expressed by Wong’s indoor scenes painted in day-glow colors reveal a story of the Chinese immigrant experience that, according to Yin, “speaks to me.”
Yin, 50, was not a collector before he joined Artsy five years ago as CFO and general counsel. Through Artsy’s editorial coverage–which includes pieces aimed at both novices and experts alike–Yin began to learn more about art and “how to curate your tastes.”
Yin stepped into the CEO role in mid-June, intending to grow Artsy as a go-to online marketplace for art. The firm has seen an increased interest in online buying in recent months–a contrast to the experience of other parts of the art world. The average art sold via Artsy through e-commerce features is about US$2,700 to US$3,000, not the million-dollar Picassos and Warhols that often make headlines.
“I, as a collector in the real world, … am I going to part ways with US$3,000 on a painting? It requires a little bit of thinking on my part before I’m willing to do that,” he says.
Art sales slipped last year by 4% globally, falling to around US$65 billion, based on the annual Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report. However, the report also indicated that transaction volumes rose by the same amount, reaching 39.4 million as more artwork reached buyers at lower price levels.
To Yin, the reality that the market continues to be strong outside those higher buyers makes sense. “If you’re a collector you get a little bit of a bug for finding that sort of new emerging artist [who] created something that you haven’t seen before—that’s exciting,” he says. “That market is still moving along.”
Artsy launched its online “Foundation Fair” in the fourth week of July, featuring 70 galleries offering about 780 works from emerging artists, all priced under US$10,000.
“That’s one of the things that we bring to market because there’s a lot of interest in the artists of that size and stage of their career, as well as galleries of that size,” Yin said.
Under Yin’s guidance, Artsy is working on new initiatives, including an “art advisor” feature that aims to provide users with collecting guidance appropriate to their interests. Its idea is to “bring relevant art to every single person who comes to the app as quickly as possible,” based on tastes and budget.
Another peer-to-peer service will allow Artsy users to resell their works.
Often, reselling art isn’t about the art itself–it’s that every artist isn’t well known. Giving Artsy users the power to put a ”sell” signal on a work they no longer want “opens up the aperture of the secondary market, which then opens up the aperture of the primary market,” according to Yin.
Yin adds that Artsy continues to focus on boosting price transparency within the market. 70% of the 1.6 million pieces currently on Artsy include prices, and those works “sell six times more quickly.”
As one of the app’s “power users,” Yin says he often displays art that he is drawn to and sees not depreciating, as he considers himself more a “patron” than an investor. He isn’t drawn to particular genres but focuses on collecting emerging LGBTQ and Asian artists. He works with imagery of places he loves, including France, Italy, and California, where he grew up.
