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Arts & Communication Contemporary art from the Global South

museums, art fairs, and biennials. We also examine 3. Results and discussion
their academic background, any prizes; they might have
been awarded, the residency programs they participated 3.1. Analysis of artists (51 artists in this study)
in, and whether they migrated to another country. 3.1.1. Geographical distribution and concentration of
This in-depth analysis led us to identify a network of artists
438 stakeholders promoting our sample of 51 artists. Figure 1 illustrates the global distribution of the top-
On average, an emerging artist from the Global South performing artists in our sample, with bigger dots
required the support of nine different stakeholders to representing a higher number of successful artists in each
rapidly integrate into the global art market and achieve country. Interestingly, the dots are scattered across Africa,
commercial success. As we compiled a comprehensive list Asia, and South America, highlighting the global reach
of these stakeholders, some rose to the top. Categorizing of the art market. Our sample comprises 51 artists from
them into four groups: Dealers, Art Fairs, Biennials, and a diverse range of 20 countries, reflecting the increasing
Institutions (Museums), the top stakeholder, the Armory globalization of the art world. One of the most important
Show in New York, was connected to 14 of the 51 artists. results of our study is that there is a diversity of artists
The top four stakeholders were art fairs, followed by succeeding in the market from the Global South.
the Ross-Sutton Gallery, with a connection to eight of However, the African continent stands out as the
the artists. The top biennial where these artists showed clear leader, being the region with the highest number of
was the Venice Biennale, featuring seven artists. The top emerging artists succeeding in the global auction market.
institution was the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, in particular, are home
which exhibited six of the artists on our list. To provide a to the most top-performing artists in our sample, with six
sense of perspective, only 25 stakeholders showcased art or more artists evident from each of these countries. This
by five or more of the artists in our sample. Thus, the vast follows a trend of growing interest in artworks from the
majority of the stakeholders were involved with just a few African Diaspora, which has garnered attention at major
of these artists or fewer. This makes those organizations at art fairs, galleries, and auction houses 14-16 . The increasing
the top of our list worthy of more investigation, but first, representation of this group of artists in the United States
we will turn to an analysis of the artists. of America (US) and Europe has made a considerable

Figure 1. Distribution map of top-performing artists by country of origin.

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1608