Network Dynamics and Market Structure: The Case of Art Fairs

Annual art fairs are a crucial element of the contemporary art market. Art galleries represent artists and exhibit their work at fairs all over the world. These fairs expose the gallery and its artists and create and maintain relationships with key actors in the global art market. Using data recording artists and galleries presenting at art fairs alongside qualitative interviews with different actors operating in the art market, we study the development of the art fair network over three years, 2005–2007. Our findings suggest significant network and homophily effects regarding the status and age of artists at fairs. However, the internationality of fairs and geographic distances between them do not seem to have any effect.