For some, art fairs would be more fun were it not for the fear of disparaging looks from dealers and gallery staff. Essentially, it's easy to feel like an outsider, an impostor, at such events - even if you're a long-term fan of, say, Marina Abramovic's theatrical installation work and follow every tiny development in the world of contemporary art. But for the past week, there has been a solution.
Last Saturday the VIP Art Fair was launched. It features, as every contemporary art event seemingly must, work from Damien Hirst - but also pieces from the current Tate Turbine Hall artist Ai Weiwei, Andy Warhol and the Turner Prize 2010 nominee Angela De La Cruz. In total, 138 art galleries and dealers from 30 countries are present, with more than 2,000 artists represented and a staggering 7,500 works of art on show. Initially, at least, this might not seem that dissimilar to any other high-profile art fair - after all, more than 50 pieces are priced above $1m (Dh3.7m). But there's a crucial difference. This is the world's first online art fair - and entry is free.
Without the pressure of looking sufficiently serious about actually buying something, the VIP Art Fair is actually a rather pleasant experience. Even its name is more all-inclusive than is usual in the art world - it stands for View In Private rather than Very Important Person. And just like a "real" fair, you enter the booth of a gallery and take a look at the art on display. Naturally, it's not quite possible to appreciate the full impact of Turner Prize-winning Mark Wallinger's room-filling Painting The Divide photographic installation (brought here by Galerie Krinzinger in Vienna) on a laptop screen. Furthermore, you're never quite sure whether the gaudy colour of the British artists Gilbert and George is properly replicated by a virtual viewing. But it's a real chance to experience the kind of work shown at an art fair without having to leave the confines of your home.
The whole concept of an online art fair raises the question of whether art is the next creative medium that will be experienced digitally, just like music and - increasingly - books. The galleries that are taking part certainly think so. In fact, as Mark Glimcher, the president of the Pace Gallery in New York points out, an online fair doesn't lessen the power of the real work, but instead enables more of it to be shown.
"This arena allows us to gather works of art that otherwise might not have had the opportunity to be seen together, from a Sol LeWitt wall drawing and a Zhang Huan ash painting, to a Dan Flavin light sculpture and a video work by Michal Rovner," he says on the VIP website.
It's the participating galleries based in Shanghai, Sao Paulo or Johannesburg that perhaps have the most to gain here - VIP enables them to deal on a level playing field with some of the bigger names on the circuit such as Gagosian and White Cube. The real test, though, is whether the exposure they'll undeniably receive translates into cold, hard cash. For although VIP is good for casual art fans, one wonders whether those with proper money to spend will do so on the basis of viewing the work on a computer screen.
After all, the visceral thrill of actually seeing an artwork in situ is, perhaps thankfully, unmatchable. A quick Google image search might reveal Picasso's Spanish Civil War masterpiece Guernica as a jpeg, but it takes a visit to the Museo Reina Sofia to fully appreciate its truly majestic scale and importance. Still, just as not everybody can go to Madrid at the drop of a hat, the VIP Art Fair caters for those who perhaps weren't able to see Jenny Holzer's magnificent retrospective at Baltic in Newcastle last year. A quick click on Cheim And Read's booth here, and you cannot just view her work, but consider purchasing it.
So it'll be interesting to see if any sales figures are announced by VIP next week - although admittedly there is plenty of work that is priced at less than $5,000. It's not an entirely philanthropic endeavour from the co-founders (tellingly, art dealers and internet entrepreneurs) to encourage interest in art either: to find out prices or chat to dealers you have to pay a one-off fee of $20. Still, you can't fault their ambition - to develop a central hub for the art market online. And at least this way, those sniffy dealers can't see what you're wearing.
The VIP Art Fair runs until today. www.vipartfair.com
