The New York art market is arguably the biggest in the world. Real estate in this city is also quite pricey. So, while New York galleries do show a variety of art, from emerging artists to established, they also need to support their high fixed costs by selling art above a certain price point. This translates to selling work by artists with a track record of shows, sales, and recognition in other markets, all of which justifies the relatively higher price point NY galleries need to set.  Accordingly, having artwork shown at a New York gallery is often considered an important career endorsement for many artists.

This year we’re excited to amp up our commitment to providing business growth support to colleagues in the field, including art advisors, designers, artists and more. Why? Because 1) no one is replicating anyone else’s business: our unique tastes are each of our inherent advantages, so we’re not concerned about losing any competitive edge, and 2) working together builds a stronger community that simply makes work more fulfilling.

We know a lot of designers, many of whom we have worked with on projects around North America. (Here and here are two recent favorites). Those who want to work with us but haven’t yet: we see you! Today we’re answering your most frequently asked question: “how do I get my clients on board with buying art?”

There are several different types of art advisors; those who represent artists, those who work with galleries, those who curate shows, and the list goes on. We are the type that sells art to clients. We don’t have any contractual arrangements with particular artists or allegiance to any gallery. Accordingly, we work objectively on behalf of our clients, sourcing art from all over the world. This means that we are lucky to be able to choose which galleries and artists to work with. Here’s some insight into how we choose:

Mason Lane London is now officially up and running. Thanks to everyone for supporting this huge step for Maddie, who gets the most attention on social media for good reason. To coincide with this, we’re sharing how all of this came to be:

2024 Mastermind Retreat Recap & Lessons Learned

2024 Mastermind Retreat Recap & Lessons Learned

The price of art is definitely not entirely subjective. There are eight key cost drivers. We look at these constantly when assessing value and supporting our clients in making wise acquisitions. Here's exactly what we look at, plus a basic rule about the photography pricing. 

A big part of our practice as art advisors is always looking for artists to recommend to our clients. Here’s just a sample of three exciting discoveries, all based in Los Angeles!

Our recent post about artist price increases was a popular one, addressing increases that feel appropriate, along with those that do not. These changes definitely impact what we recommend to our clients, and how we speak about price adjustments with them.

This year marks one full decade for Mason Lane, and we're proud to be the only art advisory firm in multiple markets. This gives our clients access to more art and the best support in building meaningful art collections.  Walking around this year's Armory Show was also a humbling reminder of how different the firm is from the original vision, and what business accomplishment fuels the most pride from our first decade.

This year, we’ve been producing the same amount of content on social media and in our monthly email than we have previously. The type of content we’ve created, however, has changed and gotten a ton more engagement.

A few weeks back, we asked our followers for their thoughts on the difference between art buying and art collecting. The answers were quite diverse, and sometimes entirely contradictory (for example, “art buying is about investment and art collecting is about pleasure” along with “art buying is for pleasure and art collecting involves focusing on investment.”.  There’s no right or wrong definition, but here’s how we think about it: 

The art advisory industry is a niche one. It’s also an industry that will likely grow over the following years. Here are our thoughts on the few factors that will drive growth, and how the structure works.

Our art advisory firm is uniquely structured with 4 offices around North America, and this is truly our biggest advantage in 1) supporting our clients’ interest in building dynamic art collections, and 2) helping us stay engaged, positive, and goal-oriented.

We’re grateful to work with interior designers from around North America. They often refer their clients to us, and the art sourcing and acquisition process is collaborative with incredible results. Many designers also prefer handling art sourcing on their own, and for those designers, we share our recommended strategies because selling art is different from selling design.

Artist pricing increases are common, but they are not necessarily correlated with an artist’s increased success, or demand for that artist’s work. In some cases, they do signal the strength of an artist’s market, and in others, they are a red flag. Here, we’re sharing four price change scenarios that we’ve recently observed, and our opinions behind them.  

We’re lucky to have clients who refer their friends to us, and referrals account for more than 80% of our business. We’re also open about what we do internally to fuel that level of client satisfaction, and we’re sharing it here for two reasons…

The window into our database that we’ve been sharing on Instagram has been generating a ton of interest. What we haven’t shared is how this database works, optimizes our time, and can be used as inspiration for entrepreneurs across the art and design fields, and beyond. This database is crucial in ensuring all of our clients - past, present and future - benefit from the NY Spring art fairs and sales happening right now.