Review 2024: Art Market, Art Trends and Tendencies
The most notable takeaways of 2024 on the threshold of 2025
2024 has been intense and challenging. It has been chosen as the year of elections. This has been the biggest test democracy has ever faced, given that more people have ever cast ballots in a single election globally. Most people agree that freedom of expression is essential to a democracy and has been observed since World War II.
Freedom of speech in public and private domains, including the visual arts, has increasingly been attacked as a result of the terrible conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as the emergence of authoritarian elected administrations. Therefore, the need for artists and other professionals to work to increase everyone's understanding of global issues is even more important than it was previously. Events such as biennales, art fairs and exhibitions have been vocal in highlighting these worldwide concerns in 2024.
After centuries of being undervalued, marginalized, and misunderstood, native and indigenous artists have been rightfully claiming their space on the global stage. As many curators have showed in their art trends during 2024, indigenous artists have been offering counternarratives to the traditional Western historical record and have been gaining increased visibility, and recognition.
At this year’s Venice Biennale, for instance, the presence of indigenous art was particularly notable, with artists from all over the world responding to the central exhibition theme, Foreigners Everywhere. Through poignant and emotive work, first inhabitants of countries such as Australia, Canada, Finland, and the U.S. conveyed the profound and often devastating legacies of colonialism. In particular, artists focused on the ways that colonialism has turned indigenous people into foreigners on their own ancestral lands. This recognition culminated in the prestigious Golden Lion jury prizes being awarded to indigenous artists Archie Moore (for Australia’s national pavilion) and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Mataaho Collective (for work in the international exhibition).
The trauma of colonisation and war, and an impending environmental apocalypse, have been themes that also permeated the 24th Biennale of Sydney: Ten Thousand Suns. And there were also glimpses of promise and joy to be found in the free art festival, which this year exhibited 96 artists and collectives from 50 different countries. Let’s not forget that Biennale of Sydney was established in 1973, is the third oldest biennial in the world after Venice and São Paulo.
ANNE SAMAT, Cannot Be Broken and Won't Live Unspoken, mixed media, 2023. Photo: Biennale of Sydney, 2024.
Building on the success of its recent acquisitions, the Tate in London also recently announced a new initiative dedicated to increasing the representation of indigenous artists in its collection by the staging of the first large-scale retrospective of aboriginal Australian artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye ever to be held in Europe.
Even this year’s Turner Prize (an annual prize presented to a British visual artist) reflected on indigenous people history by exhibiting Pio Abad besides Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur and Delaine Le Bas who also were shortlisted for the 2024 Turner Prize. Pio’s art explores cultural loss and colonial histories, often reflecting on his upbringing in the Philippines. Featuring drawings, etchings and sculptures that depict and transform artifacts from British museums, Abad sheds light on their overlooked histories and connects them to our lives today.
Elsewhere, Norwegian museum KODE Bergen is currently showing a vast and varied account of indigenous experiences, exhibiting work by over 170 artists in its latest undertaking, Indigenous Histories.
Regarding the art fairs, this year's events featured topics ranging from sustainability, climate concerns, and market instability to the growing impact of artificial intelligence. However, it must be acknowledged that identical artist names and even artwork moved across the globe and were re-exhibited after not being sold for a year. The fairs were attempting to introduce some new ideas. For instance, Frieze London's design was changed to highlight the value of up-and-coming artists, with some less well-known artists positioned closer to the entrance. This gave the fair a boost during a time when the art market is changing towards new generational interests. In recent years, major art fairs have increasingly embraced emerging artists, a trend that was especially evident during Paris Art Week. Also, Art Basel Paris has introduced its new Emergence sector, dedicated to solo exhibitions by up-and-coming artists.
The figurative art at fairs in 2024 has been vibrant, upbeat, bizarre, and remarkably real, frequently verging on melancholy. Local and intimate stories have been conveying broader meaning, which is a current trend. Sculptures have been absorbing organic material. All throughout the fairs, there has been a forest of plants, trees, and fronds that have clung to buildings, served as plinths, and appeared in unexpected places. The rock has been rocked, with well-hewn or rough-and-ready chunks hanging here and there, frequently paired with metal.
JO JONG SUNG, Landscape seen from a moving perspective, pigment on Korean Paper, 130.3x194, 2023. Photo: Taipei Dangdai, 2024.
Among the several poetic landscape paintings on this year’s exhibits, our delicate ecosystem was constantly in sight. Abstract art was widely available at the fairs, despite the fact that we have been bombarded with challenging pictures in the world's media. Abstract art, which ranges from geometric murals to panels of patinated metal, in 2024 has been a source of inspiration under the surface while also providing a visual feast for the deranged mind. Bold colour blocking and saturated palettes were prominent, with artists using vibrant colour combinations in geometric patterns or gradients to create dynamic visual effects.
A mix of earthy tones with bright accents also emerged, particularly in eco-conscious artworks, evoking a balance of calm and energy while connecting to nature. These colour contrasts captivated viewers seeking both vibrancy and organic resonance in their art.
JIMOK CHOI, The Light of Absence, Acrylic on canvas, 116x89, 2023. Photo: Taipei Dangdai, 2024.
And the primary trend in 2024: natural materials, ceramics, and textiles. Around the world, various textiles made by knitting or weaving fibres with various paints have been thriving at art fairs and exhibits. Textures, textures, and more textures. For example, Paris Photo 2024 featured a trend of mixing photography with other mediums, creating hybrid works that blurred boundaries and added layers of texture and meaning. Frieze Seoul this year was a great example of these art tendencies by showcasing Korean artists and local galleries were gaining global footholds.
SUKI SEOKYEONG KANG, Mountain - autumn, painted steel, thread, chain, wheels, 100.3x89.5x39.8, 2023. Photo: ART SG Singapore, 2024.
Regarding 2024 art trends, many people were expected to be enthralled by the tactile quality of textured art. Textured art has provided a distinct sensory appeal as people look for more genuine, handcrafted experiences. These works meant to be experienced rather than merely seen.
Besides a continues growth in interest of African and its diaspora art as well as Asia region artists popularity, the global art market has witnessed a rise in the visibility and valuation of Latin American and Latin diaspora artists as international collectors increasingly seek diverse and historically significant work. Paralleling this momentum on the auction block, biennales and art fairs are increasingly featuring Latin American artists. We have also seen significant curatorial milestones, with Adriano Pedrosa from Brazil being earlier mentioned the Venice Biennale’s first-ever Latin American curator. There is already a strong interest into the 36th edition of São Paulo Biennale in 2025 which will be examining how humans understand and engage with each other. Already solid place among collectors’, especially among new generation, interests have gained Mexican artists and its heritage.
The art market in 2024 is characterized by significant economic uncertainty and has been quite flat. With inflation and fluctuating interest rates, both buyers and sellers are recalibrating their strategies. According to a recent report by the report Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting, which was written by art market researcher Dr. Clare McAndrew and digs into the buying habits of more than 3,600 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in 14 major markets during the first half of 2024, these HNWIs cut back on their art spending, breaking the upward trend from the last few years.
One of the most notable takeaways from the report was generational and highlighted that Millennial spending dropped. The massive decrease among Millennial HNWIs could explain why the market as a whole seems to have taken a such a dramatic dip, but median spend has stayed relatively calm. Conversely, Gen X HNWIs saw low, but steady growth of 3 percent year-on-year, and reported the average spending of the $395,000 by Millennial respondents, in the first half of 2024.
While there were indications that the market was more subdued at the high end, median HNWI spending remained relatively steady, with respondents from Mainland China again recording the highest levels, indicating a resilience in the region. Confidence also remains strong, with a large majority of HNWIs optimistic about the second half of the year. However, according to McAndrews, the spending shift, which comes at a time when the amount of billionaires is actually rising (there are 141 more billionaires that there were last year, according to Forbes) does not mean people are buying less art. They are just buying less expensive art.
MU BOYAN, Bank, color on bronze, 36.5x29x37, 2017. Photo: Taipei Dangdai, 2024.
To date this year, Art Basel Hong Kong returned to its pre-pandemic scale, the flagship Art Basel in Basel showed a flurry of innovations – including an ambitious artistic activation at Hotel Merian, with an installation by Petrit Halilaj celebrating 30-year partnership with UBS, and the launch of the Art Basel Shop – and an expanded Art Basel Paris is now at home in the newly renovated Grand Palais, attracting significant buzz and international collector interest.
Art fairs remained a key channel for new discoveries. The most important objective for collectors in attending an art fair was discovering new artists whose works they could purchase at the event. Notably, HNWIs purchasing from galleries new to them, with 88% buying from at least one new dealer in 2024, indicating a confident and expansive approach to art collecting. Just under half (45%) reported that fairs were the most likely place for them to discover new artists or artworks they would be interested in purchasing.
Talking about art collectors then there are some different behaviours, spending more through dealers and at art fairs and favouring in-person transactions for reasons of confidentiality and security. Art fairs were valued for their potential to discover new artists, and for the variety of art on view. Galleries remained the most popular channel for purchasing art, with 95% buying from a dealer, either in person, through their website, or via their social media channels: multi-platform buying is here to stay.
Positive economic forecasts for 2025 bolster the art market's prospects. There is an anticipation of continued art enthusiasm, driven by both seasoned collectors and new entrants to the market. This has been supported by early indicators of market activity, including sustained spending in Mainland China, growing interest in new and emerging artists, and consistent gallery and art fair attendance.
The key conversation in 2024 has focused on theme like ART IS A FULL TIME JOB and how to arrange artists' lives so they are on an increasingly equal footing with other professionals. Discussions, panel talks, and conferences have addressed the legal aspects of artists' lives and the proper system of compensation for artists. In the Connect'24 online conference, for instance, Artlogic brought together renowned art professionals to explore the legal and professional aspects of artists' lives, how to help them to organise this side of their working time in the future.
PRESLAV KOSTOV, Tempered, Oil on canvas, 65x50, 2024. Photo: ART SG Singapore, 2024.
And like a cherry on the cake in the end of 2024 was the most talked-about lot of the New York auction season, the duct-taped banana by Maurizio Cattelan, sold for a hammer price of $5.2m ($6.2m with fees) at Sotheby’s New York after a seven-minute bidding war.
Comedian (2019), which consists of a banana attached to a wall with silver duct tape (the banana the auction house sourced from the fruit stand outside its headquarters on York Avenue), was sold on 20th November, 2024 at Sotheby’s The Now and Contemporary auction. Bidders drove the price up to $5.2m before a winner emerged, with a Chinese buyer on the phone with Jen Hua, the deputy chairman of Sotheby's Asia, outduelling online bidders. Sotheby’s said after the sale that the buyer was Justin Sun, a Chinese collector and founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron. Sun has previously bid on other splashy auction lots, including buying a $78m Giacometti sculpture at Sotheby's in 2021 and, he claims, narrowly missing out on Beeple's record-breaking NFT (non-fungible token) earlier that same year.
Comedian "represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community", Sun said in a statement through Sotheby's after purchasing the lot. "I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history," he added. Sun ate the banana, and he added, this as a way of "honouring its place in both art history and popular culture".
Sotheby's said before the sale that the auction house would accept cryptocurrency for the work and confirmed that Sun will pay in crypto, though it did not specify which currency. The winner of the auction became the owner of a certificate of authenticity and specific instructions by Cattelan for how to display the work.
When Cattelan debuted Comedian at Perrotin’s stand during Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, it was his first “sculpture” in 15 years. The work quickly became the most popular object at the event, and Perrotin took it down before the end of the fair due to crowd concerns. Comedian has been derided as both a consequence of art-market excess and lauded as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of its own absurdity. The banana component of the work has been eaten while on display twice, first by a performer artist at Art Basel Miami Beach and again by a hungry student at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul in 2023. Perrotin sold three editions of the work during the fair in 2019, priced between $120,000 and $150,000. The edition sold at Sotheby’s previously traded hands privately, according to the auction house. Another has been acquired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
By acquiring Comedian, the crypto industry undoubtedly has made a statement highlighting the position of cryptocurrencies in the modern world. The only question is whether it is a great feeling to spend such amount of money when there is a war going on and a substantial portion of the population in the world is still starving and unable to afford to buy even the most basic necessities for survival.
Title image: GONGKAN, Destination of A Long Journey, Acrylic and mirror on canvas, 100x150, 2023. Photo: ART SG 2024, Singapore.
