Cultural Capital

The High-End Art Fair Where Everything Costs $0

There’s too much good art going unseen. At this event, artists are happily giving away their work.

The second Zero Art Fair, held at FLAG Art Foundation in Manhattan.

Source: Zero Art Fair

There’s something the matter with the worlds of art production and consumption — which is that the two are badly matched. Beyond the ultra-rarefied realm of blue-chip galleries and international art fairs, there’s an enormous surplus of artwork created by people with fine-art degrees who are rarely able to make a living from selling it.

The number of such works sold each year is a tiny fraction of the total produced. The problem isn’t that potential buyers don’t want original art: A huge number of people would love to live with the high-quality pieces these artists produce. It’s just that the prices are generally unaffordable. Supply and demand don’t clear. If the art market were a dating app, it would have a one-star rating.