Artsy Gallery
Insights

2022 ReportArtsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Letter from Dustyn Kim

2

In the two years since the pandemic started, the art world has madea drastic shift online. As lockdowns and social distancing became
everyday realities, galleries shifted their operations online in order toconnect with new collectors virtually.
In 2021, digital sales remained important even as art spaces reopened
and in-person events returned, with many galleries reporting record
online sales volumes compared to years past. The result is a truly
hybrid art world where online sales are just as important as those that
happen in person.
In addition to offering a view into how galleries are integrating digitaland in-person sales strategies, this report explores new territories,
including NFTs and collectors’ payment preferences. These topics areimportant to galleries today, reflecting the new hybrid norm.
As always, this survey would not have been possible without the
1,300+ art-world professionals who took the time to share theirexperiences with us. We thank you for your time and hope this reportwill serve you well in 2022.
Warmly,Dustyn Kim
Chief Revenue Officer, Artsy

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report3

About This Report

For the fifth installment of our annual art industry research report,
we surveyed more than 1,300 art galleries and dealers—both partners
and non-partners of Artsy—from 84 countries to learn about theirbusiness operations and priorities following year two of the pandemic.
Artsy reviewed 873 responses to find year-over-year trends
and analyze the ongoing fusion of online and offline art sales.

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Table of Contents

458

Key Findings
2022 Findings
9
Online sales continue to grow
11
Younger collectors are making their presence felt
13
Price transparency is becoming the norm
14
NFTs and cryptocurrency remain niche
19Marketing budgets are up across the board
22	Artwork sales have increased
23
Galleries and collectors prefer different payment methods

24	Survey Demographics& Methodology

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Key Findings

5Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Key Findings

61

Online sales keep growing,even as in-person events return

Of the galleries surveyed, 64% reported that their volume of online
sales increased in 2021 compared to 2020, quelling doubts thatonline sales models would be temporary measures. While in-person
events returned and physical spaces reopened in 2021, online selling
methods continue to attract business, with 47% of the surveyed
galleries reporting that their online buyers last year were mostly new
customers, up from 39% in 2020.

2

Few galleries are selling NFTs
or accepting cryptocurrency—
for now

Crypto-backed non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, entered the art market
in a big way in 2021, marking a potential paradigm shift for both
digital art and the way that online art transactions are conducted.
For now, though, NFTs are still a relatively niche corner of the market
for galleries. Only 11% of the surveyed galleries reported selling
NFTs in 2021, though 25% said they plan on selling them in 2022.
The cryptocurrency trend goes beyond NFTs—30% of galleries
surveyed said they were interested in accepting crypto as payment
in the future, suggesting that galleries are keen to connect with newcollectors from the crypto community.

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Key Findings

73Marketing budgets havecome roaring back to life

After the pandemic cratered galleries’ operational budgets in 2020,
marketing became a significant line item across the board in 2021,
eclipsing even pre-pandemic numbers. As COVID-19 restrictions wererolled back, the costs of attending in-person events such as fairs wereadded to the costs of maintaining gallery websites, social media pages,
and subscriptions to online marketplaces like Artsy. Online marketplacebudgets specifically are on the rise, with 2021 spending nearly doublingthat of 2019. As a result, the average gallery’s marketing budget in 2021
rose to $92,800, a 38% increase from the average 2020 budget and a
24% increase from 2019.

4

Galleries still prefer bank andwire transfers over credit cards

Bank and wire transfers were ranked as galleries’ top two payment
preferences, with credit card payments coming in at third place.
According to “Art Collecting 2021: An Artsy Report,” however, mostcollectors prefer paying with credit cards above any other method—
likely an outgrowth of new, digital-native collectors, and the increasing
prevalence of online and app-based sales channels since the startof the pandemic.

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

2022 Findings

8Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

9

Online Sales
Continue to Grow

During the first year of thepandemic, galleries turned
to online sales channels toremain connected with buyers.
Sales through gallery websites,
social media, and online
marketplaces all became
important sources of revenue.
Despite the resurgence ofin-person sales channels,
such as visiting fairs and galleries,
the upward trend of digital sales
has largely persisted in 2021,
with more galleries than everoffering works for sale online—
namely 89% of respondents.
This increase in works on offer
online has been met with ahungry market: 64% of galleries
claimed that the volume of their
online sales increased in
2021 as compared to 2020,
while 23% claimed that itremained the same.

Digital sales channels havealso proven particularly useful inreaching new collectors. Of thegalleries surveyed, 71% saw anincrease in new clients, and thiscan be traced in part to online
sales: 47% of galleries said thatonline buyers were mostly new
to their business in 2021, up from
39% in 2020.
Online marketing is similarly
effective at attracting newcustomers: 46% of galleries
reported that their website
helped them reach the most newcustomers in 2021, followed byorganic social channels at 42%,and email marketing at 19%.

Despite the return of in-person collecting,the volume of online sales has continued to increase,helping galleries connect with new collectors.

online channels. Nearly 50% of
small galleries described their
online buyers as mostly new totheir business, and nearly 70% ofthat same cohort said they saw
more first-time buyers in 2021
than the previous year.

How did the volume ofyour online sales in 2021
compare to that of 2020?

64%

Small galleries, categorized
as those with one to three
employees, have particularly
benefited from the ability toconnect with new buyers via

23%
Galleries that saw their online
sales volume increase

Galleries that saw their online
sales volume stay the same

13%
Galleries that saw their online
sales volume decreaseArtsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

Galleries reporting thatonline buyers were new
to their business in 2021

10

47%

39%

2020

2021

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

11

Younger Collectors
Are Making Their
Presence Felt

Collectors under the age of 55 are becoming
a stronger force in the art market.

In this year’s survey, 64% ofgalleries reported that the
average age of their buyers in
2021 was between 35 and 54,
a 10% increase over 2020’s
numbers. Among all respondents,
62% considered this age range
to be the most important to theirbusiness, and 52% said thatcollectors aged 35 to 54 spent
more money at their business thanany other age range. In step, thepercentage of galleries reporting
their average customer is 55 orolder dropped from 25% in2020 to 21% in 2021.

What is the average age ofyour buyers?

collectors—meaning those
who started collecting in thepast four years—said that they
prefer to discover new artists on
their phone, as opposed to 39%
of experienced art collectors.
According to the same Artsy
report, 65% of next-generationcollectors were between 18 and44 years of age, indicating thatthese preferences generally alignwith a younger demographic.
Additionally, 56% of nextgeneration collectors also said
they prefer to buy via an app
or mobile website.

64%

These shifting demographics go
hand in hand with the change indominant art sales channels, as
the industry’s move online hasaligned with younger collectors’
buying preferences. According
to “Art Collecting 2021: An Artsy
Report,” 64% of next-generation

21%
35-54

55+

11%
Unsure3%18-34

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

12

Galleries reporting an averagebuyer age between 35 and 54

64%
58%

2020

2021

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

13

Price Transparency Is
Becoming the Norm

Visible pricing is upending the status quo
as galleries embrace online sales and attempt
to attract new collectors.

Among the surveyed galleries,
77% said they displayed prices
on at least some of their works in
2021, up from around 74% the year
before. A more stark difference
can be seen when comparing
the percentage of galleries thatsaid they only share prices uponrequest—which was 29% in 2019,25% in 2020, and just 20% in 2021.

% of galleries making prices
visible on at least some of
their works sold online

Of the galleries that embrace pricetransparency, 50% said they listed
more works with visible pricing
in 2021 than in 2020, while 47%
said they listed about the sameamount, signaling that among
those who have adopted thepractice, price transparency ishere to stay.

In addition, according to Artsy’s
internal data, works for sale on
Artsy with public prices are about
five times more likely to sell thanthose without.
This is generally reflective ofcollectors’ preferences. In “Art
Collecting 2021: An Artsy Report,”
62% of respondents said the lackof visible prices kept them frombuying art online. Among nextgeneration collectors, this waseven more prominent, with 71%
of respondents in that cohort
saying that it was a roadblock topurchasing art online.

67%

74%

77%

This practice is also widespreadon art marketplaces such as Artsy.
In 2021, 75% of all works listed on
Artsy carried a visible price, up
from 69% in 2020 and 63% in 2019.

2019

2020

2021

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

14

NFTs and Cryptocurrency
Remain Niche, but May
Become More Prominent
In 2021, cryptocurrency and NFTs
made a big splash in the art world
thanks to high-profile events likethe record-breaking $69.3 million
Beeple sale at Christie’s last
March, which placed the artist
among the most expensive living
artists at auction.
Despite this, galleries have largely
taken a tempered approach to themedium. According to this year’s
survey, 11% of galleries said theysold NFTs in 2021, though 25%
said they planned on including
NFTs in their sales approach in2022, while 28% were undecided.
Of the galleries that sold NFTs in
2021, 68% said their collector base
expressed interest in the format,
and 87% said they will offer NFTs
again in 2022.
Galleries that sold NFTs in 2021
tend to be smaller in size. Of the
respondents that offered NFTs,
66% had three employees or
fewer, and 15% had four to six
employees, with participation
continuing to decrease as thenumber of employees increased.

This seems to suggest that
smaller galleries are more willingto experiment with selling new art
forms than larger galleries.
The sales volume made from
NFTs tends to be small: In Artsy’s
survey, 51% of galleries said thetotal sales volume generated byselling NFTs was $5,000 or less.
Then, 20% of galleries generated
between $5,000 and $14,999 by
selling NFTs, and 15% generated
between $15,000 and $49,999.
Only 5% of galleries earned over
$250,000 selling NFTs in 2021.
However, according to Art Baseland UBS’s report “The Art Market
2022,” 74% of high-net-worth
collectors—defined as those who
spent more than $10,000 on art
and collectibles in 2020 and 2021—
purchased art-based NFTs in 2021,
and 88% of the same cohort said
they were interested in purchasing
NFT-based artworks in the future,indicating that there is a large poolof collector interest in the format.

Cryptocurrency and NFTs entered the art world’s
collective consciousness in a big way in 2021,
though their actual appeal among traditional
galleries is relatively minor.

The adoption of cryptocurrency asa payment method has also beensluggish among many galleries,
but it seems to have gained more
relative acceptance than NFTs. Of
the galleries surveyed, 30% said
they are interested in accepting
crypto as payment in the future,and 26% were undecided, which
seems to indicate that galleries
are interested in catering to a newgeneration of collectors who areflush with cryptocurrency andeager to buy art. In fact, blue-chipgalleries seem to be leading thecharge towards crypto adoption:
Pace and Gagosian have bothannounced they will accept crypto
payments, and Pace has launched
its own NFT platform.

25%

30%

11%
Galleries that sold
NFTs in 2021

Galleries planning to sell
NFTs in 2022

Galleries interested in
accepting cryptocurrency
in the near futureArtsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

15

Of the 11% of
respondents who
sold NFTs in 2021…

74%
have a physical location

85%
saw an increase in
first-time buyers

87%will sell NFTs again in 2022

68%
said their collectors had expressedinterest in buying NFTs

58%
are interested in smart contracts,
which grant artists royalties forthe resale of their work

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Special Artsy Editorial Report

16

NFTs Promised to Revolutionize the Art
World—but Are Galleries on Board?
Josie Thaddeus-Johns

Refik Anadol, Machine Hallucinations — Nature Dreams / AI Data Sculpture (2021) at
KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin. Courtesy of KÖNIG GALERIE.

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Special Artsy Editorial Report

Steven Sacks, who runs bitforms gallery, has been selling
media art for the last 20 years. But in 2021, everythingchanged. The NFT boom, he said, is “probably the mostdisruptive thing that’s happened to my gallery—both positive and negative.” Suddenly, the previously
small audience for buying digital art became exponentiallylarger: “It opened up the market to millions of people who
now look at a digital piece of art as legitimate,” he said.

17

aficionados (67% of galleries in Artsy’s survey said
that their clients had not even asked about collectingNFTs), but there are several that are making
concerted efforts to bridge the gap.
Unit London’s Joe Kennedy, who co-founded thegallery with Jonny Burt in 2013 without a built-in
collector base, had previously used social media,
such as Instagram, to connect with buyers. But
the boom in NFTs presented a new community:
younger, tech-literate clients ready to engage withthe gallery. Kennedy was attracted to the open,
disruptive nature of the NFT market: “All the issuesof accessibility in the art world stem from a lackof transparency. And it creates a very inequitable
marketplace for artists, and sometimes forcollectors.” His approach resulted in a new, curated
NFT-selling platform, Institut. It debuted with a showof almost 100 artists, curated by Kenny Schachter,including “NFT-native” artists like Olive Allen, as
well as more established art world names, like Jake
Chapman. As the venture develops, the gallery
will be working further with artists that are alreadyestablished in the NFT world, he explained, suchas Tyler Hobbs and IX Shells, who both featured in
Institut’s booth at Art Dubai 2022.
Institut is reaching out to the crypto community
through platforms normally eschewed by the art
world—notably Twitter and Discord. On the latter,
Institut has a private channel for collectors andartists, with over 2,000 members.
Other galleries are taking a different approach tobridging the gap. Last year, Johann König founded
misa.art, an NFT marketplace that caters to ayounger set of collectors than his blue-chip gallery
König Galerie usually works with. Indeed, the gallery
itself still sells NFTs on platforms like Opensea,
where Refik Anadol’s work Machine Hallucinations –Nature Dreams : AI Data Sculpture (2021), exhibitedat the gallery’s Berlin location in late 2021, sold forjust over 300 ETH (around $870,000).

It’s been impossible to miss the growth in salesof NFTs (non-fungible tokens). The exorbitantsums paid for several high-profile, blockchainauthenticated artworks has made them anunavoidable talking point. Now that NFTs are
frequently used as certificates of ownership fordifferent types of media, from profile pic (PFP)
projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club, to performative
gestures like Cassils’s cans of poop based on
famous artists’ diets, the traditional art-world
distinction between artwork and collectible has
seemed, at times, under threat. NFT marketplaces,
after all, are far more inclusive of newcomers than
the art establishment, and there are plenty ofplatforms where artists are able to connect withbuyers directly.

month, he opened and sold out his first gallery show
(reportedly the first gallery opening he has everattended) at Jack Hanley Gallery. With a year of NFTs
behind us, how have galleries responded to thissurge in interest for blockchain-certified work?
Artsy recently surveyed its gallery partners about
their experience with cryptocurrency and NFTs, andfound that just over a tenth of the 873 respondents
said that they had sold NFTs in the last year. Artsy’s
survey also suggests that the value of most NFTs
sold in galleries may be more modest than theheadlines suggest: Of those that sold NFTs, only
5% of galleries said the works’ prices totaled over
$250,000. The majority (51%) of galleries sold lessthan $5,000 worth of NFTs.

Misa, which accepts both crypto and credit card
payments, and offers technical help via a Discord
channel, is aimed at individuals who need nohand-holding in purchasing NFTs. “The good thing
about Misa is that it provides the visitor with somuch information that they can make an educateddecision,” said Johann König. By contrast, König
characterized the gallery itself as being about“serving artists.” He added, “We focus a lot on
placing work in museums. A platform can’t do that,but for young artists, young collectors, it works.”

This has enabled NFT artists to succeed outside
the gallery structure. Take Beeple, for example,
whose infamous Everydays: The First 5000
Days (2021), a digital collage, sold as an NFT at
Christie’s for $69.3 million in March 2021. This

Among galleries I spoke to on the topic, there
was a broad agreement: There are traditional art
collectors, and then there are NFT collectors, andeach group has entirely different expectations. Many
galleries might not come into contact with NFT

Pace, meanwhile, set up an entirely new platform,
Pace Verso, late last year, which will offer monthly
drops from artists in and outside of its program(Lucas Samaras and Glenn Kaino have alreadybeen featured). Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle, Pace’s

Leo Villareal, Cosmic Reef #125, 2022. © Leo Villareal, courtesy
Pace Gallery.

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Special Artsy Editorial Report

18

regular programming. “It’s not common, but it’s
growing,” said gallery co-founder Saskia Draxler,
noting that there was interest from these buyers inartists like Christine Wang and Martin Kippenberger.
Galerie Nagel Draxler shows NFT works in a
dedicated “crypto kiosk” that, beginning this year,
takes up one of the gallery’s two exhibition spaces inBerlin, and has also popped up in booths at several
art fairs. This IRL space creates interactions that
Draxler sees as vital to bridging the gap between
the art and crypto communities. For example,
at Art Cologne last fall, the gallery sold a Schachter
work to a collector who usually collects Joseph
Beuys and Jonathan Meese.
As for the future of NFTs in the art world, Draxler
was also adamant that there would be no future
without clean blockchain technology, referring toenergy-guzzling proof-of-work technology thatsome blockchains currently run on. “If this is not
resolved, it doesn’t have a future,” she said.

Krista Kim, 8x8 XR, 2021, 3:08, in collaboration with Jose Igarza, music by Ligovskoï. Courtesy the artist and Unit London

director of online sales, sees crypto-native andtraditional collectors becoming more unified in
the future. While the gallery has been helping (or“hand-holding”) its regular collectors through the
intricacies of purchasing NFTs, there was also
movement in the other direction, she explained:“Verso gives us an opportunity to engage withcollectors from the crypto side that we would like toconvert into more traditional art collectors. In theory,
it’s no different from client development, trying tolearn exactly what they like and what they may
want.” One collector in particular, she explained, hasbought an NFT at every one of Pace’s drops so far,and is now interested in other artists on its roster,
like Adam Pendleton and William Monk.
At German gallery Galerie Nagel Draxler (which, like
Unit London, tapped crypto-art enthusiast Kenny
Schachter to inaugurate their NFT program), only afew NFT buyers had been converted to the gallery’s

In contrast to building an NFT platform, a lessintensive entry point for galleries courting
crypto collectors might be the acceptance of
cryptocurrency as a payment method for traditional
artworks. In Artsy’s survey, 30% of respondents
said they planned to take this step in the next few
years. For crypto-rich collectors who have a vested
interest in keeping their gains out of traditional, or
fiat, currency, this could make purchasing art a much
more attractive prospect.
Or could it? Rachel Lehmann, co-founder ofLehmann Maupin, explained that the gallery started
accepting crypto payments in summer 2021. And
yet, until now, this option has been selected by only
a handful of clients, she said. The gallery hasn’t seen
an influx of newly interested crypto-enthusiastic art
buyers. “Not yet,” she said.

On March 11th, Lehmann Maupin launched a new
virtual space to exhibit augmented reality (AR)works sold as NFTs, called CollectAR. The platform,
which will be inaugurated with Ashley Bickerton’s“Ocean Chunks” series, allows for artworks from thegallery’s program to be digitally superimposed on
our real-world surroundings via QR code. The works
will be for sale beginning March 29th. Lehmannsees this platform as a “bridge into understanding
different communities,” as well as a way of offering
an immersive viewing experience of the artwork. “Itchanges everything. Rather than seeing something
two-dimensionally, we have the possibility toexperience it in a very different way,” she said.
Indeed, it seems like gallery involvement in NFT
sales is set to grow: A quarter of the galleries from
Artsy’s survey reported that they plan to sell NFTs
in 2022, which is a 150% increase from the numberthat said they actually sold them in 2021. There areencouraging signs for artists, too: Of the galleries
that are already selling NFTs, 58% said they areinterested in seeking ways to provide artists withsmart contracts that grant royalties for the resale oftheir work.
Meanwhile, as galleries’ sales of NFTs—which
are predominantly digital media—grow, collectors
may start asking different questions, explained
bitforms’s Steven Sacks. “A big part of the dialogue
between the gallery and the collector is: How do you
present the work? Can we present more than one
work on a screen? What’s going to happen if the filefails? There’s this discussion about the foundationof art, which is the experience,” Sacks said. “It’sunbelievably important to everyone.”Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

19

Marketing Budgets Are
Up Across the Board

The average gallery marketingbudget rose to $92,800 in 2021,
a 38% increase from 2020 and
24% higher than in 2019. This
exorbitant jump in expenses
comes as galleries spend more on
both online and in-person sales
strategies amid the return of fairs
and other offline events.

most lucrative sales channel for
galleries, up from their position
as the sixth-most lucrative in 2020.
Overall, these statistics
may signal that, despite theincreased importance of digitalsales channels, fairs will continue
to dominate marketingbudgets moving forward.

Fairs were by far the largest line
item in 2021 marketing budgets,costing $42,600 on average—a
43% increase over the $29,800
average fair budget in 2020. Thiswas matched by an increased
investment in certain online sales
channels, as well. Of particularnote is that the average budget for
online marketplaces like Artsy was$8,900 in 2021, up from $6,700 in2020 and $4,500 in 2019.

Other in-person events outsideof fairs were the second-mostexpensive budgetary concern
in 2021, with an average price of$13,100, up from $6,900 in 2020.
Printed materials saw a similar
jump in budgetary prominence,going from $7,000 in 2020 to$11,000 in 2021.

Historically, 67% of the surveyed
galleries participated in fairs,
and many plan to continue todo so: 47% said they plannedon participating in one to three
fairs in 2022, and 17% said theywould participate in four to six.
In 2021, fairs were the fourth-

Digital spending saw similar
increases. In addition to theaforementioned increase in online
marketplace budgets, spending
on websites and social media
also increased substantially from
2020, likely reflecting the successthose channels brought in thatyear. Email marketing and paid
advertising budgets were bothAs the art world reopened in 2021, galleries spentsignificantly more on marketing across bothonline and offline channels than in years past.

down from 2020, but werestill comparable topre-pandemic averages.
For galleries with 25 or more
employees, budget increases in
2021 were even more dramatic.
The average marketing budget ofa gallery this size was $453,000,
with $239,000 of that goingtowards in-person expenses suchas printed materials, fairs, andother events, and the remaining$214,000 going to online efforts
and advertising costs.
Larger budgets may be due in partto general inflation. The return toin-person events has brought its
own attendant cost increases, but
an increase in everything fromgas prices to shipping costs has
acted as a multiplier on thosebudgets. These skyrocketing
prices have begun to factor into
artwork pricing, too, with 22% of
respondents saying that they areplanning on increasing the prices
on their works due to inflation, and
34% saying they are unsure.

Gallery marketing budgets
2020 vs. 2021

Year-over-yearincrease

2020

2021

Fairs
Printed materials
Events (excl. fairs)
Online art marketplaceYour website
Paid advertising
Email marketing
Social media$29,800$7,000$6,900$6,700$6,100$4,500$3,700$2,500$42,600$11,000$13,100$8,900$6,000$4,500$3,200$3,500Total$67,200$92,80038%

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

20

Marketing budgets in 2021—
by gallery size

Marketing budget(1-9 employees)

Marketing budget(10-24 employees)

Marketing budget(25+ employees)

Fair(e.g., booths, attendance)$39,000$81,600$64,000

Printed materials(e.g., exhibition postcards, catalogues)$8,400$24,400$75,000

Events(not including fair activity)$11,300$30,200$100,000

Online art platform(e.g., Artsy, 1stdibs)$8,500$10,600$34,000

Paid advertising(e.g., Facebook ads, magazine ads)

$3,400$8,700$43,000

Your business’s website(excluding online art platforms, e.g., Artsy, 1stdibs)$5,500$10,100$31,000

Email marketing$2,500$11,200$53,000

Social media$2,900$1,700$53,000

Total$81,500$178,500$453,000

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

21

In 2022, how manyin-person fairs do you
plan to have a booth in?

33%
0 fairs47%
1–3 fairs

17%
4–6 fairs

2%
7–10 fairs

0.4%
10–15 fairs

0.4%
15+ fairs

Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

22

Artwork Sales Have
Increased Thanks to the
Return of In-Person Events

There are now more opportunities forgalleries to connect with collectors at
brick-and-mortar locations and art fairs—
but online presence remains key.

Unsurprisingly, outreach toexisting clients remained the mostsurefire sales strategy for galleriesin 2021, with 21% reportingthat this type of engagementwith collectors led to the mostbusiness. More marked shifts that
occurred between 2020 and 2021
pertain to galleries’ reopening ofphysical operations.

Top sales channels
2020 vs. 2021

In 2020, sales through galleries’
websites were the second-most
lucrative sales channel, but in
2021, that was eclipsed by walk-ins
to their physical locations, which
jumped from 6% of respondents
claiming it as their most lucrative
sales channel in 2020 to 20% in
2021. Sales at art fairs also saw a
sharp rise, with just 5% of galleries
claiming fairs as their mostlucrative channel in 2020 to 13% in
2021. Overall, 36% of galleries said
that in-person events (including
fairs) were their most successful
sales channel in 2021.

While in-person events havebecome more lucrative thanthey were in 2020, online sales
strategies remain an importantpart of a gallery’s business. Online
art marketplaces were the fifthmost lucrative sales channel
in both 2020 and 2021, holding
steady at around 12% of responses
across both years. During the
pandemic closures of 2020, nearly
12% of galleries said that theirmost lucrative sales route wasthrough social media. While that
number dropped to 5% in 2021,
it still remains higher thanpre-pandemic figures.

2020

2021

1

Outreach to existing clients

Outreach to existing clients

2

My gallery’s website

Walk-ins to your physical space

3

Social media

My gallery’s website

4

Walk-ins to your physical space

Art fairs

5

An online art marketplace(e.g. Artsy, 1stdibs)

An online art marketplace(e.g. Artsy, 1stdibs)

6

Art fairs

Other

7

Art advisors

InstagramArtsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

2022 Findings

23

Galleries and Collectors
Prefer Different
Payment Methods

Online sales channels have brought about morecredit card payments, though galleries andcollectors are split on their feelings towards it.

Bank transfers were the most
preferred payment method of thegalleries surveyed, with 48% of
respondents listing it as their first
choice, followed by wire transfers
at 38% and credit cards at 35%.
According to “Art Collecting 2021:
An Artsy Report,” however, mostcollectors prefer to pay with acredit card over any other method.

Top 3 gallery
preferences forreceiving payment

Newer collectors who have begun
buying in the past two years
have found an art market moreamenable to instant connection
and purchase, and appear to now
expect the same level of easeacross all art world transactions,both online and off.

On Artsy, 80% of collectors who
used a credit card to transact
in 2021 were new buyers to theplatform, and works that can bepurchased with a credit card are
more than four times as likely tosell as those without the option.
And “Art Collecting 2021: An Artsy
Report” found that 56% of nextgeneration collectors prefer to buy
art via an app or mobile website,which tend to take credit cards asa main form of payment.

Next-gen collectors
who prefer to buy via an
app or mobile website

1

Bank transfer

2

Wire transfer

3

Credit card

56%
From Art Collecting 2021:
An Artsy ReportArtsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Survey Demographics & Methodology

Survey Demographics& Methodology

24Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Survey Demographics & Methodology

25

Demographics

Regional Breakdown

Female-Owned &LGBTQ+ Representation

Business maturity
Less than 3 years17%

3–15 years

41%

More than 15 years

36%

North America

47%

Europe40%

Female-Owned

Asia and Oceania

6%Latin America andSouth America

Member of the
LGBTQ+ community

4%

Africa and the
Middle East

4%

Diversity in theGallery Sector
Latinx

5%

BIPOC

4%

Other minority group

3%

Asian-Pacific

1%

23%
5%

Inventory
Gallery Size
2-3 employees

45%

1 (just me)

28%

4-6 employees

14%

10-24 employees

5%7-9 employees

4%25+ employees

2%

Mostlyprimary-market works

65%

Mostlysecondary-market works

11%

Roughly equal mixof primary- andsecondary-market works

18%Artsy Gallery Insights: 2022 Report

Survey Demographics & Methodology

26

Methodology

Conducted from January to February 2022, this survey generated
responses from gallery professionals (including but not limited toArtsy gallery partners). In total, 1,321 responses were collected, andafter applying control measures to ensure accuracy and quality ofthe survey response data, 873 respondents were included in the final
sample. This sample included responses from art dealers, associate
directors, marketing directors, gallery directors, gallery managers, andgallery owners. This research was compared to previous years’ reportdata, which was collected from 1,753 respondents in October 2020,
and 1,008 respondents in October 2019.
This report has not been created for any specific gallery
and its findings should be taken as general advice.
Results are not guaranteed.
If your gallery is interested in partnering with Artsy,
visit partners.artsy.net to learn more.
Written for Artsy by Justin Kamp.