Can You Keep Up With How Fast the Art World is Changing?

One of the clearest signs of this power shift is how art collectors are seizing the reins. No longer do they unquestioningly rely on advisors to tell them what to buy, particularly in the more “accessible” segments of the market. According to our Print Collectors’ Survey, 71% now discover art through social media, and 86% don’t use art advisors at all. In other words, roughly seven in ten print buyers find new artworks via Instagram, TikTok and other social channels, while only about one in seven take the time to consult an advisor. This is a digitally savvy generation of collectors who prefer to do the legwork themselves - browsing online marketplaces and assessing pricing trends on databases - essentially assembling their own research arsenals. By the time they pull the trigger on a purchase, they’ve done all the homework an advisor might have done for them, and then some - because they’re taking the time to find what they really love, at the right price, from the right place.

But this independent streak is not mirrored across the wider market. In fact, the rest of the industry is moving in the opposite direction. While the prints and editions sector has evolved into a space of data-driven self-sufficiency, higher-value corners of the market have seen an unmistakable resurgence of the art advisor. As global sales have cooled and collectors have become more cautious, the appetite for expert guidance has understandably grown. New advisory firms led by former auction specialists and gallery veterans are multiplying, catering to clients who want discretion and personal service - qualities that will likely never be replaced by digital tools.

That divergence is telling. The reason autonomy thrives in the print space is because its infrastructure allows it: price histories, edition comparables, and transaction data that’s visible and verifiable. In other sectors - where opacity and exclusivity remain hardwired into the buying process - the advisor’s role is, if anything, more entrenched than before.

Driving this changing behaviour is a simple demand: transparency. Collectors today have little patience for the opacity that used to be standard operating procedure in the art world. In Artsy’s Art Market Trends 2025 report, 69% of collectors said they’d hesitated to buy art because of a lack of transparency. Nearly half of online buyers cited “insufficient information about the work” and a “lack of visible pricing” as their top barriers to purchasing. These would-be buyers aren’t about to drop money on an artwork if basic facts and pricing are shrouded in mystery. Can you blame them? Buying any luxury asset already comes with a degree of uncertainty; unclear prices or scant details are deal-breakers for digitally native collectors who expect clarity as a baseline.

Slowly but surely, the wider art market is coming around to this transparency mandate. The latest Art Basel & UBS report found that online channels accounted for 22% of dealers’ total sales in 2024 - significantly higher than the pre-pandemic share of 13%. Also according to their report, almost half of all sales that dealers made online last year were to brand new buyers entering the market. The implication: these newcomers are finding their footing via websites and apps rather than through traditional channels. Even many established galleries, facing an ageing client base, recognise that they must meet new collectors on their terms. Over half of galleries (55%) say they plan to pour more effort into creating online content in 2025, far outpacing the share who are prioritising more in-person events.

Beyond the demands of collectors, the very tone of the art world itself is changing. The post-pandemic, mid-2020s are ushering in something more buzzy and zeitgeist-driven in the primary market. The experience around the commercial art world is being reimagined to appeal to a generation raised on social media virality and trend cycles. The teeming crowds Phoebe Saatchi has managed to draw at Saatchi Yates are a testament to that. It barely warrants mentioning that being the daughter of Charles Saatchi helps. But she’s got her finger on the pulse, and other commercial galleries would do well to follow her example if they want to create a home for the next generation of collectors.

All 1,200 of the Abramović prints exhibited along the gallery walls are for sale on their website. Priced at a reasonable £1,800 a pop, Saatchi Yates could be looking at a gross sale figure of £2,160,000 if they sell every single piece - which is not unlikely taking the accessible price-point and Abramović’s stardom into account. As of today (6th October 2025), Saatchi Yates have already sold 464 of the prints in less than a week - 38.7% of the total stock, amounting to £835,200. Where other Soho galleries are relying on single sales of unique works, Saatchi Yates clearly have a new model down: one that thrives on accessibly-priced works in higher volumes, and is driven by hype and spectacle. Tatler recently called them “a gallery for the TikTok generation,” but that grossly underestimates the potential a model like this holds. It’s true that Saatchi Yates’ openings are hedonistic affairs, filled with a younger gaggle that veers on self-serious. But you can’t deny that their approach is a much needed breath of fresh air in the frankly outdated world of commercial galleries. And it’s working.

Online platforms are also taking a new approach in the primary market. Avant Arte, whose core message is "discover and buy art in a radically different way,” have built a digital ecosystem that pulls collectors in content first. Avant Arte markets each of their releases with short-form educational videos, artist interviews, and printing studio footage. They alert collectors of upcoming ‘drops’ through their Instagram Channel, like a live feed, that members can interact with. They sell their works via limited drops, auctions, and draws which almost gameify the collecting process. This ‘drop’ culture, which we’ve also seen with HENI’s ongoing collaborations with Damien Hirst, creates a ‘last chance’ mentality around these artworks and builds a great sense of community among collectors. A strong online and social media presence is now a pre-requisite for any platform that wants to thrive in today’s market.

It’s not just collectors, galleries, and platforms rewriting the rules - artists themselves are increasingly sidestepping the old gatekeepers and forging new paths. Traditionally, an artist’s career was tethered to their gallery representation, who handled everything from sales to career strategy. But that model is now being challenged by the rise of independent artist agents. As former Art Basel director Marc Spiegler recently observed in BOF, the art world is “adopting a model that’s common in other talent-driven industries.” In music and film, creators have agents and managers; now, many prominent visual artists are doing the same. Agencies like 291 are pioneering this approach for contemporary artists - taking on everything from museum deals to brand collaborations and taking a cut of an artist’s entire brand, not just gallery sales. And that’s why it works - because artists have to operate as brands today, and agencies are simply better suited to that reality than galleries are.

This evolution is fundamentally eroding the 20th-century notion of the omnipotent dealer or gallery as the sole gatekeeper of an artist’s success. Sure, galleries remain a vital part of the overall system - they provide platforms, client networks, and credibility - but they’re no longer the only (or best) option. We now see artists who maintain gallery relationships and work with agents to turbocharge the rest of their career. Some even build their own direct-to-consumer channels via social media or personal websites, selling work or merchandise straight to their followers. It’s telling that in our survey of Gen Z collectors, 78% said they would never buy art from a traditional auction house, and 89% were drawn to works by emerging artists above all else. The next generation of creators and collectors are showing a clear preference for a fresh and accessible approach. The art market, in turn, is now evolving into something more akin to the entertainment industry, and more connected to the wider world of luxury assets.

In 2025 and beyond, change in the art world has become unavoidable, and it’s proving to be exactly what the market needs. The turbulence seen earlier this year, with headlines reporting on decline across the market, underscored a simple truth: the problem was never a lack of appetite for art, but outdated systems struggling to meet new expectations.