The organizers of the VIP Art Fair announced that the online show will return with for a second round, with VIP2.0, Feb. 3 through Feb. 8–older, wiser, and a little more technically functional.
Organized by the James Cohan gallery, VIP blazed a trail that many start-ups have followed this year – Art.sy and Paddle 8 among them – and their version of the internet art sale offered galleries the chance to participate in an “online art fair” that was plagued by technical problems, to the point where VIP offered a 50 percent discount to participants, some who had paid as much as $20,000 for their booth.
With a new in-house vice president of engineering and promises of technical improvements, organizer Jane Cohan told The Observer that the new site is ready for all visitors and welcomes the competition from others who have moved into the space. “It does bring a lot of confidence that this is a space that needs a lot of exploring,” she said of other sites. “And our proposition is very strong.”