Top five art terms important for collectors to know and understand in 2023
Whether it’s talking about abstracts, décollage, giclée, or mezzotint, the art world’s lingo can be intimidating. The artworld glossary is full of specialist terms yet it is not a closed book. Every year new words or phrases enter the vocabulary of collectors, curators and artists as new trends and themes emerge.
Perhaps the most significant theme we have witnessed in recent years is the growth of digital art. This space has undergone a huge transformation in the last few years, driven by the growth in the online art market, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increased adoption and affordability of this new tech.
The boom in NFT art has dominated the headlines, and the hype has somewhat overshadowed some of the most important changes. Artists are great innovators and have always been early adopters — and adapters — of new technologies, and that trend will continue as the market stabilises and the tech becomes more mainstream.
With any emerging trends comes new lingo. Needless to say, the growth of digital art has thrown up some fresh terms besides NFTs – from the ‘metaverse’ to ‘blockchain’ to ‘decentralised autonomous organisations’.
- Visitors to this year’s fair will come across other terms that are increasingly in vogue but rather less technical. For the Art Dubai event itself, the term Global South will be well trailed – because it is behind the very essence of what we strive for. We bring together artists and inspirational and creative thinkers from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, which make up the Global South and are underrepresented in the wider global art world.
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Hamza Kirbas, Empire Store Building, 2022, Digital, 1980x1020px, © Morrow Collective UAE There will also be many collectives on show, which have grown in prominence and recognition. Indeed, in 2021, the Turner Prize jury selected a shortlist consisting entirely of artist collectives and this year, we have more than 30 collectives (a group of artists working together) exhibiting at Art Dubai this year.
- Essential in any business, but particularly so in the art world is collaboration , and is a market with such energy. Historically, it has been dominated by a few major centres, but it’s rapidly becoming more globalised. The early art fairs (which played a big role in internationalising the art market) were collaborations between galleries. It’s a model that still exists in some centres and has been reinvigorated through gallery weekends — notably in Berlin, and most recently in Tokyo and London. It’s always been important to work with partners across the sector, and this is something we continue to take very seriously.
- Broadly speaking, think of the term metaverse as cyberspace. That’s because the
Thank You X, Art1, 2022, Digital, 190×140 term doesn’t really refer to any one specific type of technology, but rather a broad (and often speculative) shift in how we interact with technology. Broadly speaking,‘the metaverse’ can include virtual reality and augmented reality that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds.
- NFTs, the abbreviation for non-fungible tokens, are unique digital assets that can’t be copied and exist in a blockchain, which is a form of digital ledger. They are traded online and may represent real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos. The exact meaning of the term metaverse, propelled into the limelight by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, is still rather vague but you can expect to include virtual reality and augmented reality, while in their simplest form, decentralised autonomous organisations are digital communities.
But the beauty of art means it doesn’t matter if you are not familiar with the lingo and whether you know the difference between the metaverse and a decentralised autonomous organisation. It’s what you see, think and feel that is important.
