Buyers capitalising on NZ's burgeoning art market

In October 2004, an unprecedented event took place in an already buoyant market. In one month three shows by leading contemporary artists sold out not on opening night, but before opening night, meaning buyers who arrived at 6pm on the dot missed out.

Works by both established and younger, emerging artists are being snapped up by collectors at a feverish rate and gallerists now have to act as gatekeepers trying, frequently in vain, to keep speculators at bay.

It is not unusual now to see work exhibited for the first time only a year or two ago appearing at auction and reaping investors a handsome profit. Like the stock market, only prettier, is how the current level of interest in the art world has been described.

In August 2003, Warwick Henderson Gallery, in part reacting to far more demand than supply, took the extraordinary step of auctioning the work of young artist Rozi Demant.

In what was only the artist's third solo show, prices sailed over pre-sale reserves as buyers at the auction competed with telephone bidders from Sydney, America and Singapore. The highest price paid was $22,000 and dozens of bidders missed out.

Established collectors have been joined by a new breed of younger, well-travelled and knowledgeable collectors who include art as part of a balanced investment portfolio. It's not just about the capital gain. This generation of collectors is part of the new level of confidence in New Zealand's cultural industries and is spurred on by the international success of our film, fashion and wine industries.

To borrow a phrase from British art guru Matthew Collings referring to the same phenomenon in the UK, we have become an "art crazy nation".

At Anna Bibby Gallery, Gavin Hurley's deceptively penetrating portraits sold out well before opening night at prices from $3000 to $7000 with a queue of buyers demanding to be on the waiting list for his next show.

Andrew Mcleod's exhibition at Ivan Anthony Gallery titled Parabosis sold out at prices between $11,000 to $14,500. Mcleod is one of a new breed of artists who surf across mediums and styles. One of the stars of the recent Auckland Triennial, this was his first exhibition devoted exclusively to the medium that refuses to die, oil on canvas. He revealed himself to be a highly inventive, even lyrical painter with a cuckoo's eye for detail.

Collectors lapped up the work as they did at the recent show at Gow Langsford by John Pule. Niuean artist and poet Pule has perfected the balancing act of being both ethno-specific and wired into contemporary art practice. His work has steadily grown in stature over the last 10 years and his profile in investment terms rocketed when one of his major works sold for more than $60,000 at auction.

Bill Hammond's work is near the top of most heavyweight collectors' shopping lists and he is one of the pillars of the art auction scene. His work is increasingly sought after internationally.

Series like the Bullers Bird-inspired works that explore our colonial history while mixing both high and pop culture references, make his work instantly accessible and visually unique. At his recent sell-out show at Ivan Anthony the larger works sold for between $75,000 and $110,000.

So those are the numbers. The question on everyone's lips is, are we in a boom market? The spectre of the late '80s art crash is still weighing on the minds of gallerists who are remarkably reticent about talking up the market.

Gary Langsford who has been one of Auckland's premier gallerists for more than 15 years is unequivocal. We are in the middle of a boom. But what we are dealing with is an informed market place. It's not like the '80s, the people buying today have real money.

Ivan Anthony agrees and adds that today's art collectors take the time to become educated. I get a sense that many collectors are seeking to define themselves and their own belief systems by their collection.

Anthony was a pioneer in making Karangahape Rd the art centre it is today. So much so that a recently formed art group, the aptly named Strip Club, has formed solely to invest in art from galleries on K Road. For seven years he has exhibited the young artists who are now becoming art world stars in their own right and beginning to exhibit internationally.

This new generation, the first not to be fixated on McCahon, as he puts it, have a real expectation they can earn a living as fulltime artists. While it's true that the incredible level of investment in art over the last five years (growth of over 150 per cent based on auction figures) has fuelled enormous price growth and a degree of speculation, what this market expansion does for the artists is give them real hope they can earn something more than a subsistence living. As one commentator put it, it is no longer compulsory to be a starving artist in a garret.

Linda Holloway who is about to graduate from Auckland's Elam art school explains the confidence she and other young artists have in regarding a career in the visual arts: "I think the market is sustainable because it ultimately affirms a strong commitment to New Zealand art as something essential, that speaks to who we are."

This sense that the visual arts is taking a more prominent place in our economic and cultural life is palpable. It's not just a new generation of collectors banging on gallery doors. Those who were present at Walters Prize Judge and leading American curator Robert Storr's recent Auckland lectures would have noticed two things. First that the lectures were packed and not just with art world insiders and second that New Zealand is very firmly on the international art map, participating in a discussion much wider than we thought possible even 10 years ago.

The impact of New Zealand's participation at events like the Venice and Sao Paulo Biennales cannot be underestimated for giving the buying public back home confidence in the product and pushing artists to up their game.

The fact that Et Al's selection to represent New Zealand at Venice in 2005 was robustly debated by Paul Holmes in prime time is evidence that art rates in a way it never used to.

Tips for would be art collectors:

1. Make a point of going to as many exhibition openings as possible. They are free and you'll soon gain a sense of where your personal interest lies, be it abstract, figurative, contemporary or historic art.

2. Read! Start reading the major New Zealand art magazines Art News and Art New Zealand. The next step is to acquaint yourself with the major international magazines such as Art Forum, Modern Painters and Frieze.

3. Go to the auctions. Webbs, Dunbar Sloane and the International Art Centre have regular major and affordable art sales with art priced from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

4. Surf the net. Feed your favourite topic or artist into Google and you'll have days sometimes weeks of information and research.

5. Buy a piece of art! You can begin your collection for a few hundred dollars. The affordable art auctions are a great place to get started. Once you've bought your first piece you'll be hooked.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY