Video art now represents some of today’s most exciting contemporary art. The field has expanded to encompass not only traditional film and digital video, but also a range of new media and technology, including virtual and augmented reality and video games.
Saavy collectors look to video art as a
new undervalued collecting category
Today, a new generation of artists working across mediums, including video, represents an important growing trend. With top art prizes going to moving image artists, the market for video works is ready to go mainstream.
Media-based artists won
top art awards around the globe
At the 2019 Venice Biennale, the Golden Lion award went to Arthur Jafa’s video The White Album (2018). Also in 2019, the prestigious Turner Prize shortlisted a group of video artists, showing the strength of artists working in the medium. The year before, the Turner Prize was the first in history to have a shortlist which consisted entirely of video artists. More recently, another prestigious art prize, the BMW Art Journey award presented at Art Basel Hong Kong in March 2020, went to Shanghai-based video artist Lu Yang.
For some, the lower price of entry to collecting digital art is enticing and generally considered cheaper than buying paintings, sculptures, and other collectibles. According to Marc Glimcher, the CEO of Pace Gallery, New York, the potential for price appreciation is another strong attraction to media-based art: prices have doubled or tripled in the past five years for top works.
What this means for collectors is that they can still buy the best historical and pioneering media artists at prices much lower than artists with similar reputations but who work in other mediums.
At the top of video sales, a Bruce Nauman video, No No Museum from 1987, sold for a record $1,625,000 at Christie’s New York on May 8, 2016. Most video works from the 1980s were purchased for under $1,000 at the time. Revered master video artists Nam Jun Paik (often called the father of video art) and Bill Viola have only recently begun to see their works sell for six figures, compared to painters with similar standings whose work sells in the millions. However, this is set to change.
Yet, video artworks are difficult to view at art fairs and at galleries, and many collectors are unsure how to go about starting a video art collection.
With exciting new ways to collect and live with these works, video art is a collecting category starting to be embraced by a larger audience. New technology offers buyers assurance that only works with proper authentication can be distributed and resold. Today, anyone can copy a photograph, a painting, or a digital file, but only works with proper authentication have market value and can be sold.
ArtPlay was created especially for art collectors to discover new video artists, and to view and purchase works for their collections all in the comfort of their homes. ArtPlay works online, or view your new video art collection on ArtPlay’s Apple TV channel. You can even add works you already own to your personal ArtPlay My Collection channel. It’s your private channel to create an immersive environment of art at home.
Join as a member and you will get premium art world content, learn about undervalued artists to collect now, and receive curated special previews and online exhibitions to view on demand. Now the most compelling moving image art comes to you on any connected screen or device.