New York City’s art culture has changed dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic. Museums are closed, swanky galleries are seeing less foot traffic, and the recession is curtailing sales. Many New Yorkers fled the city to their outlying vacation homes, and their favorite New York art houses, galleries, and artists followed them.
This development is a win for collectors who say that online and virtual exhibitions are not the same as personal, visual interaction with the art and artists. More gallery options also means additional venues for emerging artists to showcase their talent; in crowded city spaces, it was hard to compete with famous names.
In the Hamptons, for example, collectors are coming out of lockdown to explore the newly opened gallery options popping up along the tidy, quiet streets. While the area used to be where the city’s dealers, artists, and collectors vacationed, now that they have spent most of the pandemic living here, there is much to discover. Since early June, five major art shops, headquartered in New York City, have set up spaces: Pace, Skarstedt, Van de Weghe, Michael Werner and Sotheby’s.