Art Consultancy
Proud to announce the opening of our first ever Meta Gallery Exhibition. Link to be revealed soon!
We have created a virtual space that will be #public #perpetual #accessible
Join us from anywhere in the world at 1pm GMT for our art tour: our 20 international artists will be virtually there to meet you (and your avatar) and talk about their art.
Tiziana Maggio's has curated a special of covetable items for Singulart
London’s Style: a collection of works handpicked by guest curator Tiziana Maggio for Singulart
Tiziana Maggio is an experienced art consultant and curator who resides in London. She studied History of Art and Management of Art Institutions in Bologna and worked for the Italian Government as an advisor on its medieval assets in Rome and Southern Italy. She has also worked with a number of international commercial galleries dealing in antiquities, and modern and contemporary art.
She now runs a boutique art consultancy where she seeks to enhance spaces into enriched environments through the power of art. Like us here at Singulart, Tiziana is passionate about supporting both up-and-coming talents as well as established artists.
Her selection is inspired by her time in London: a busy, hectic and lively city, with a thriving artistic community.
In 2019, Artsy produced “The Online Art Collector Report,” which examined the behaviors of collectors who bought art online as a subset of the broader community of collectors. In the years since, much has changed about art collecting.
In 2021, virtually every collector is an online collector. Among respondents, 84% said they had purchased art online, up from 64% of collectors in our 2019 survey.
Collectors are embracing the online marketplace. More than half of collectors surveyed (58%) said they had used an online marketplace such as Artsy to purchase art, up from 41% in 2019.
Collectors expect visible prices on works. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of respondents said the lack of visible prices kept them from buying art online.
Read the full report to learn seven additional key findings.
The online art market has stormed ahead in the last 18 months and could treble in size compared to online sales in 2019. It is likely to represent nearly 25% of the overall market by the end of 2021.
Buyers and sellers have both got used to trading online and what used to be a brave new frontier in the art market is now business as usual. Darwin would indeed be proud of the way we have all adapted. It has also been good for the soul to see the art world physically opening up again and it was important that the first major art fair in Basel was a success.
The online art market will never fully replace the physical market but it will continue to grow until it reaches what we all hope will be a happy point of equilibrium.
The other big and certainly for me, totally unexpected, event that has exploded into view are NFTs. Activity has been up and down like a yo-yo but what is undeniable is that they are attracting a new breed of collector/speculator to the market and are here to stay. It will undoubtedly create a bubble in the short term and we can expect a few to make a fortune whilst many will end up shedding a tear before the NFT market settles down and becomes part of the mainstream.
Robert Read Head of Art and Private Clients Hiscox
In 1816, English poet Percy Shelley asked in his Hymn to Intellectual Beauty: ‘Spirit of beauty, that dost consecrate with thine own hues all thou dost shine upon of human thought or form, where are thou gone? ‘. Shelley came to find the answer in Italy. Now in 2018 I like to think that the answer has arrived in London with Tiziana Maggio and her boutique art consultancy specialised on sourcing art for the real estate sector, for residential and commercial spaces to enrich them with unique character and style. Tiziana is an independent art consultant, curator, writer for art magazines, and art enthusiast. Her passion is founded on her specialised studies in Fine Art and her work experience with the Italian Government. In London, she worked for a number of commercial galleries until she created her art consultancy as she explained to us.
-Tiziana, how and when was the idea for your art consultancy born?
-Almost 6 years ago I realised there was a gap in the market. Almost everybody in the art industry was focussed on private collectors but no one was servicing the real estate professionals. Developers, real estate agents, interior designers were left to wander on Google images for inspiration, often leaving walls blank and spaces empty. I founded my art consultancy with the idea of bringing original art by talented emerging artists into the new commercial developments, offices and private properties in London. We all agree that having art in work spaces has recognised benefits in terms of productivity, mood and general well being. Yet, art can also enhance the economic value of property, facilitating its rental or sale. In terms of business model, our focus is on leasing original art that we also sell. Leasing is an excellent way for companies to avoid capex and having to commit to a piece that might be not the right fit in the long term.
In fact, many of our clients prefer to ‘rent & rotate’ such that their spaces are refreshed with new art on a regular basis.
-In Italy we are immersed in art on a daily basis, thanks to our rich artistic heritage. Is there a relationship between your agency and this Italian artistic immersion?
-If you grow up in Italy, you are used living, studying and working surrounded by incredible art. For example, my university courses were held in a beautiful XII Century monastery with stunning medieval frescos, whilst in the offices of the Italian government where I worked we were surrounded by XVII Century paintings from the Caravaggio’s school. With this in mind, I believe that with my consultancy I am aiming to bring back that everyday fascination for art, inherited from the Italian background, and enrich working and living spaces. Yet at the same time, it is a counter to Italy’s tendency to focus predominantly on the Old Masters. In fact, with my agency we promote and support talented emerging artists who hopefully will be the Masters of tomorrow.
-Art galleries are increasingly using online platforms to sell their works. Do they risk of becoming commoditize? Do you think that this digitisation is positive?
-According to Deloitte’s 2017 on Art and Finance report, the online art market continues to show resilience and further growth. In fact per the Hiscox ‘Online Art Trade Report 2017’ online art market sales reached an estimated US $3.75 billion in 2016, marking a 15% increase from 2015. This gave the online art market an estimated 8.4% share of the overall art market, up from 7.4% in 2015. Therefore these numbers show that art galleries are facing an unprecedented opportunity to connect with their audience on a global scale with relative ease. For example they can nurture relationships with and sell art to collectors all over the world with sites like Artsy.
Yet by the same token, online platforms like Artfinder or Saatchi Art are equally giving the same opportunity to artists to sell directly to their followers. So, ironically the very thing that is supporting galleries, could be ultimately detrimental to them as the market disintermediates. At the end, this disruption in the art world echoes what we have seen in many sectors across the arts, including television and music with YouTube and iTunes.
-London has always been considered an international melting-pot. Is this still the case? Where do your artists come from and are you able to attract international clients?
-London has always fascinated and attracted artists and art lovers from all over the world for its wealth of exhibitions and opportunities. Brexit or not, London continues to be the beating heart of the art scene. My artists in fact have very international backgrounds: coming from Korea, Usa or Australia they have moved to London for either its top class colleges like the Royal College of Art and the Central St. Martin, or for the very unique residencies, like the ones at Gasworks Gallery and at the Acme studios, or for the valuable international exposure. I can say the same for our clients, well travelled art connoisseurs who value the idea of offering an international showcase of art in their properties and not least because their tenants or residents are themselves coming from all over the world and they definitely feel at home being surrounded by inspiring and cosmopolitan paintings or sculptures in their working and living spaces.
-Who are the artists that have recently caught your attention?
-In the last year I have been focusing my curatorial research on large scale work. I have been working with internationally acclaimed painter Anca Stefanescu: she brings a huge amount of mastery of digital colour theory and compositional elements from the computer screen to very big canvases, where she finishes up with strokes of oil paint full of energy. London based, she has been featured in numerous galleries and exhibitions from USA to Italy. I love her bright colours and captivating characters, women and animals, that populate her works. Another artist I am currently working with is Mexican-French-American Alicia Paz. Her paintings, collages and standing figures focus on the female form. Inhabiting fantastical and exotic landscapes, Paz’s feminine subjects become fused with organic life creating strange and unsettling visions of tree-women and monster-women. Paz’s work has been the subject of various catalogues and publications and has been reviewed internationally. I am always fascinated by her ethereal scenes where you can spot hidden messages and meanings and forms if you look closer.
Lucia Pulpo
Tiziana: How has the audience perception and engagement changed in the last 5-10 years?
Dominique: One thing that has changed is the relationship buyers have with ownership; the way digital technology has influenced the way they use visual culture and the visual experience to incorporate that into a sense of themselves.
Tiziana: Considering the changing trends and attitudes of our audience, how is the art industry maintaining a fresh objective?
Irini: Institutional exhibitions are being designed with the intention of inspiring people to attend exhibitions and collect the work. The approach is pioneering, tackling numerous experiments with new technologies. I’m not sure who takes the first step in adopting trends – the audience that paves the way for the others to follow, or the arts organisation. It’s a matter of responding to what happens next.
Tiziana: There are plenty of discussions addressing how art and technology are working together, but what do they actually have in common?
Eugenia: They both share an interest in innovation; being able to engage people and create original experiences. Technology is a tool to transform our legacy and heritage, and to democratise the art world. It is undoubtedly playing a role in our evolution, and the numbers make it evident; online sales represent 8% of the global art market and galleries agree that the majority of their clientele consists of new buyers. Tech is disrupting the art market (as it has done in other industries). In brief, it’s a new reality to consider.
Tiziana: Addressing this new reality and the obvious change in behaviour, what are the current barriers facing a newer and stronger engagement? How is the industry adjusting to the new tools they have been presented with?
Dominique: One of the main challenges we face is education; the way we cultivate ideas around connoisseurship and taste to answer simple questions like “What is great art?” The art market has always been driven by that connection with the artist or the work and despite the eagerness to predict habits, it boils down to something greater than technology – that gut feeling. As we increasingly rely on AI, is this the way we want to be offloading connoisseurship or should we rather be training people to generate original ideas to acquire, investigate and look?
Tiziana: Transparency, accessibility and liquidity are terms that are becoming increasingly fundamental in the art market. How do we encourage growth in these sectors?
Eugenia: It is no surprise that the art market comes with a lack of regulation, transparency and a limited number of active buyers so the focus is on building an ecosystem to benefit four key aspects – tax, provenance, pricing and accessibility to the FIMART (Fractional Market Place of Art), the fractional ownership art marketplace on the blockchain. Catering for more crypto investors this ecosystem promotes transparency, increases audiences and generates liquidity. You don’t need to be a millionaire to buy a fraction.
Dominique: Some museums are great at raising money and some are not. They all need money. This is probably the antithesis of what collectors want to hear, but I think we should let some art die.
Tiziana: how do you think tighter ecosystems will change the art world?
Eugenia: The strength of an art ecosystem will encourage more people to influence the market, and the size of the market will increase benefitting artists and institutions.
1. To start off, tell us a bit about yourself! Where do you come from, and what is your academic background? Where does your interest in art come from?
I am an independent art consultant, curator, writer and enthusiast for the art of all media. My passion for art comes from my family: when I was little we used to tour across Europe during the summer to visit museums, galleries and churches and discuss our impressions together, we had such fiery debates on modern art I remember!
I earned my MA in Art History from the University of Salento and gained a specialisation in Fine Art, Art Networks and Art Management from the University of Bologna.
Prior to moving to the UK, I worked for the Italian Government advising on its medieval assets in Rome and Southern Italy. Since moving to London, I have worked at a number of commercial galleries dealing in antiquities, contemporary and modern art. I am fellow of the Royal Society of Art and I am currently a contributing writer for Look Lateral in addition to writing my own blog. Finally, I am the founder and director of Maggio Art Consultancy, a boutique operation sourcing art for the real estate sector.
2. Where do you think the art market is heading, considering the more and more digitalised approach?
The art market is living an incredible era of change. Firstly, superstar artists such as Jeff Koons or Anish Kapoor are using Instagram to communicate directly with their ever-expanding audiences, creating a freshness and immediacy in the relationship with their followers and buyers. In essence, artists are becoming their own marketing experts, promoting their art with video clips and hashtags or selling art on online platforms such as Saatchi Art, Artsy, RiseArt.
Secondly, the digital art movement has been steadily and increasingly growing in popularity pushing the boundaries of traditional media: Five Stages of Maya Dance by Marina Abramović or the Digital Museum opened in NYC by the incredibly popular Japanese high-tech art collective TeamLab are just few highlights of this cutting-edge media.
Lastly, digitalisation is shaping art finance too with the proliferation of cryptocurrencies, along with fractional ownership models, and galleries and auctions accepting encrypted digital money, such as with Warhol’s 14 Small Electric Chairs offered recently for multiple shareholdings via Blockchain-based technology by the owner art dealer Eleesa Dadiani and the online investment platform Maecenas. In a very near future out of reach art will probably be in all our diversified portfolios, answering to a long waited democratization for collecting fine art.
3. Art galleries are having a tough time everywhere. Why do you think it is happening?
We are experiencing a dichotomy of the market. From one side we have key players such as Pace Gallery, White Cube and Victoria Miro thriving with prominent exhibitions and promoting emerging artists. Alas, the art of these galleries is generally inaccessible to the wide audience of buyers.
Therefore art lovers have to steer their art expectations towards more affordable high street galleries. However these galleries are lead by competitive business models with no much room for nurturing and mentoring upcoming talents as well as first-time buyers: in fact set as commercial operations, they have high targets and profits rankings to beat the pressure of skyrocketing rents in cities such as London and NYC.
Therefore, important sectors of the public, such as millennial collectors, prefer to have wider options and a direct relationship with emerging artists, for example visiting Affordable Art Fairs or just browsing online for a quick transaction hoping to then ‘flip’ the piece shortly after.
4. In your opinion what is one of the biggest hurdles for the contemporary art industry at the moment?
Every day I meet extremely talented young artists, who have studied at the best colleges and are producing art with passion and dedication. However, the system to become noticeable and see their works sold in fairs or at exhibitions is very harsh and sometimes expensive to the point where my artists either cannot produce more works if they don’t sell or have to keep their works stored.
One way to avoid it would be to have institutions such as the Royal College of Art creating a more efficient osmotic environment where artists can meet, dialogue and learn directly from the market players, art consultants and buyers at the early stages of their careers so to be prepared to navigate in a very challenging market. Incubators or hubs for artists should be the models to look for, like what Silicon Valley is offering to young entrepreneurs and startups.
An extremely positive operation in this sense is MTArt Agency, a fast growing agency that mentors and invests in up-and-coming visual artists, accelerating the career of its artists and the value of their works and projects.
5. You work primarily with the real estate sector, having founded an art consultancy specialised in art leasing. How does it work and who are your clients?
Almost 6 years ago I realised there was a gap in the market. Almost everybody was focussed on private collectors advising them on the perfect piece for their living room but nobody was working with the real estate players. Developers, real estate agents, and interior designers were left to wander on Google images for some inspiration, leaving walls blank.
I founded my art consultancy with the idea of bringing original art by talented emerging artists into the new commercial developments and offices in London and private properties. We all agree that having art in the offices has recognised benefits in terms of productivity, mood and general well being. On the other hand, art can really enhance the economic value of the property and facilitate the sometimes strenuous long process of rental or sale.
In terms of model, we offer original art for sale or to rent. Rentals are an excellent way for companies to avoid capex and not commit immediately to a piece that might be not the right fit in a long term.
6. Is there a particular artist or artists you are following actively at the moment?
This year I have been enjoying working with two very talented female artists in particular.
Christina Mitrentse is an international multidisciplinary London-based artist and educator. She is known for constructing poetic ensembles of vintage book-sculpture, drawing, screen-printing, and productions of site-specific installations. Mitrentse confronts the viewers with an array of humorous meditations on materiality, by appropriating books from her collection: popular novels, science, and art books have been defaced, twisted, cut and stuck together, hand sanded and carved, meticulously transformed into organic sculptural series of small-scale plinths and fungi.
Renata Fernandez is a Venezuelan artist who creates charcoal and pencil drawings and paintings full of a subtle melancholy of the impossibility of ever returning to her country. In trying to keep on holding the unattainable, she ends up depicting an otherworldliness, landscapes in a static narrative devoid of human presence. Working with formats and subject-matter to a certain degree of exhaustion, her work transmits an undefined sense that something lurks beneath which is incredibly moving.