4 Crucial Career Tools

Introduction: How Online Tools Can Improve Our Career and Understanding of the Art World

The art world can be very complex due to the enormous amount of artists, institutions, galleries, and more. As an artist, collector, or gallery director, doing your research is crucial. So the pertinent question is; where to start?

As an artist, you must do your research analyze galleries, or discover new opportunities to set your career in the direction you want. As a collector, you need to know which artists are doing well, who they are, how they are doing in the art market, and where to find them. And as a gallery director, everything above is equally important if you want to do a good job when curating your gallery program.

In this article, we have shortlisted the most useful online tools for artists, collectors, galleries, and art lovers, in general, to do professional and efficient research in the art world.

1. Artfacts: Mapping the Art World

One of CAI’s favorite tools for art research is, without any doubt, Artfacts—a most helpful tool for artists, collectors, galleries, and researchers. Their mission is to map the art world by registering and verifying facts in the art world and entering it into the art world’s largest database to date. Artifacts—founded in 2001—has become the industry-leading database to analyze artists and their place in the art world—making it the perfect tool for curators, collectors, galleries, and researchers.

As a result, it has also become an exciting tool for artists. For instance, to analyze the art world in which they want to prosper. If a gallery contacts you, you can examine the gallery with Artfacts, discovering their ranking compared to other galleries and the level of the artists they represent, enabling you as an artist to make an informed decision if this gallery could be an excellent fit for you. Further, you can also submit your exhibitions to improve your personal ranking—increasing your credibility when a gallery director, collector, or curator wants to see and evaluate your ranking.

Artfacts consists of numerous exciting features. Their primary mission is to digitize objective art facts, making the art world more transparent so anyone can increase their knowledge scientifically and efficiently to improve their business or art experience and knowledge. A significant feature is, of course, their artist ranking—the infamous ranking methodology we use ourselves for our top lists. By doing so, in a few clicks, you can discover a reasoned overview of the 20 most famous artists of your age, medium, country, or worldwide.

It is safe to say galleries and collectors have even more to gain with the features and tools Artfacts provides. For instance, in a few clicks, we can see the ranking of any artist, but also an overview of who they are and what they have achieved so far in their career. Even more exciting is the tool to analyze the career trend of the artist. By doing so, as a collector or a gallery director looking for the most exciting emerging artists today, we can beat the curve and collect or work with them before they are out of our reach.

I must also add that you must always analyze these data with a critical mind. Some artists will have a lower ranking simply because they consciously participate in fewer shows due to a slower artistic production, for instance. The Artfacts rankings are not perfect, but they are a great place to start!

Discover Artfacts for free via the following link and discover their subscriptions if you want to access all of the features mentioned above here.

2. Artenda: Database for Opportunities in Art

The following tool is, according to my humble opinion, the most valuable platform and tool for all artists; Artenda. As with Artfacts, Artenda is a database mapping the art world. More specifically, they map a one particular and crucial segment; art opportunities for artists—think of open calls for exhibitions, artist residencies, art contests, grants, and more.

The most challenging thing for any artist is to get traction in the art world. Many artists find it challenging to find gallery representation or to exhibit their work in general. We have discussed numerous things in our extensive article on How To Succeed as an Artist, and art opportunities play a crucial role in kickstarting your career as an artist.

With Artenda, you can efficiently stay posted on the best art opportunities for you personally. They provide various tools to set up your personal preferences regarding your practice, location, and the desired type of art opportunity, to discover an overview of all the best opportunities, their info, and deadlines. They even sent weekly or monthly emails to keep you posted. By doing so, what used to be a very time-consuming and often fruitless venture—searching for open calls randomly on the World Wide Web—has now been made accessible by Artenda.

Therefore, I invite you to consider using Artenda and stay posted on art opportunities throughout the year that may one day change your life and career.

3. Artsy App: The Art World in Your Pocket

Another helpful tool for artists and collectors—and art enthusiasts in general—is the Artsy App. As you might know, Artsy is the largest and industry-approved online marketplace in the world for buying art. Nevertheless, there is much more to discover, especially with their app with the suiting one-liner: “The Art World in Your Pocket.”

One might wonder, why consider installing the free app if we can visit Artsy in our browser? In my humble opinion, two excitingng tools on the Artsy App make the app more than worth it.

First and foremost, the search function gives you a perfect and accessible overview of an artist in seconds, presenting a short biography, a selection of works, and also the most helpful art market insights—especially when it comes to the secondary market—providing all the information you could need to purchase a work by the artist in question.

A second magnificent tool is the City Guide to explore art currently on view in some major art cities—New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Paris, and Hong Kong. You can navigate to the city in question and discover exhibitions at renowned galleries and where to find them.

Feel free to discover the Artsy App for iOs here or Android here.

4. artguide: by Artforum International Magazine

This brings us to the following tool to discover art on view—a more extensive version of the Artsy City Guide; artguide by the renowned Artforum International Magazine. Instead of showcasing and compiling art in the six major art cities mentioned above, artguide lists exhibitions, fairs, and special events in over 800 cities enabling you to stay posted on the most exciting shows nearby.

This unique and exclusive Artforum feature is the perfect place to see what’s on. Visiting top-notch exhibitions is crucial for both the artist and the collector. With the artguide, you have accurate and extensive listings available at any time in almost any art city. They feature the press release and reviews and even offer the possibility of a personal guide to exhibitions with the myguide feature.

You can access artguide for free on Artforum or by installating the artguide app.

Last Updated on October 25, 2023