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Arts & Communication Contemporary art from the Global South

actors and networks, are central to the expansion of the To select our sample of artists from the sales database
art market today, particularly the inclusion of emerging of Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips, we use the indicator
artists from the Global South. We have developed a two- of growth magnitude to evaluate these artists’ commercial
tiered study to shed some light on this important issue. success. Applying the indicator of growth magnitude,
The fundamental question we seek to answer is: how are we consider artists commercially successful when their
artists from the Global South brought into the global art artworks were sold for at least double their estimated
market network, and which sites are the most robust in price by auction house experts. This indicator allows us
terms of promoting the careers of emerging artists from to determine that they garnered greater interest than
the Global South? It must be stated that while our project predicted for their creations and rapidly incorporated
nominally focuses on the market, our goal is to trace a into the global market structure. Beginning with an
broader transformation in the art world as a whole. Many examination of only 2 years’ worth of auction data, we
of the sites we have discovered are not commercial in identified a group of 51 living artists from the Global
orientation but demonstrate institutional shifts at the South (Appendix 2) whose prices at auctions at least
global level. Our goal is to understand how the market doubled the existing estimates. In certain cases, the results
facilitates these changes and what processes dovetail with were five, or even ten, times the estimated price provided
it to generate a more diverse contemporary art world in by auction house experts. We consider these artists as the
the 21 century. most successful emerging artists from the Global South in
st
the contemporary market at the moment. To understand
2. Materials and methods how these artists achieved these sales results in a short
As with so many studies of the art market, the first tier period of time, we need to examine their professional
of our analysis begins with auction results because the development in the art world.
information is public and demonstrates a diversity of The second stage of the research involved collecting
interest in contemporary art. Another notable shift in the extensive exhibition data on these artists to determine
art market over the last generation is the incredible growth where they have been shown and which points of access
of the contemporary art market above all other sectors, contributed to their market success. Our stakeholder
which currently represents 55% of all art auction sales analysis follows the recent research developed by
worldwide. New York has remained the most important Baia Curioni, Pierazzini, and Forti . In one sense, the
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art auction location, accounting for 38% of global art question that we aimed to answer was: are there dealers or
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auction revenue . The major auction houses in New York, exhibition venues that recur in this list and demonstrate
namely, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips, have recently a network of actors in the contemporary art market
developed auctions that focus on the most contemporary significantly contributing to the promotion of artists
art available at the market, capitalizing on collectors’ from the Global South? How can we map such a network?
fascination with emerging artists and their works. These Furthermore, what will it tell us about the inclusion of
auctions are variously titled as “New Now,” “The Now,” or new artists in the art world? We ask not only about the
simply “21 Century Sale.” They aim to promote the idea of drivers of market success but also about the networks
st
the “contemporary” in contemporary art and thus seek the accessible to artists from the Global South. Are specific
most desirable, primarily young, artists from around the established institutions and dealers heavily involved in
world. By studying recent auction results (Appendix 1) and this process, or have new structures emerged to facilitate
identifying works of art that sold for an order of magnitude the diversification of the art world and the inclusion of
greater than their estimates, we sought to discover which new actors? Through our research, we hope to discover
artists art investors perceive as the most desirable artists. a process for determining the value derived from the
We consider emerging artists to be those who have had their
first solo exhibition in a cultural institution within the past integration of market and institutional structures, thus
paving the way for alternatives within an existing system
2 years, are under 50 years old, and have recently entered the that was once closed to artists from most of the world.
art market. Concerning the geographical delimitation, the It is not so much an analysis of how the art world has
notion of Global South includes countries in Asia, Africa,
and South America, excluding China, as this country’s changed but rather who is effecting change in the art
art market is considered mature. Artists coming from the world at present.
Global South are those who were raised until adulthood To conduct the exhibition analysis, we examined
(age eighteen) in these countries. Some artists have since artists’ curriculum vitae, websites, and gallery websites
moved to neighboring countries or Western ones, but we to gather precise information about the exhibitions in
will parse specific complexities below. which they participated. We focused on art galleries,

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1608