Personality Rules New Markets

Dylan Snyder | Culture Correspondent, San Francisco, CA

With the rise of digital information, countless industries have been affected by consumers having increased access to what were once industry secrets. Fine art is no exception, as collectors are able to research and discover art at a brand-new scale, with an increasing emphasis on where their art is coming from.

The last 20 years of internet-powered commerce have delivered the most informed and, in turn, socially conscious consumer we have ever seen. According to McKinsey, Gen Z “often turn to the internet when looking for any kind of information,” and something as personal as art deserves attention and education. When making a purchase, modern shoppers not only compare reviews, prices, and delivery options online but also evaluate the values and principles of the company or creator. Does this artist both create art that speaks to me, and does the artist support my ideals in art and in life?

This increased desire to consume and engage with the fruits of like-minded people’s labor coincides with access having never been easier. In fact, there has been a recent trend of using reality TV and carefully crafted public personas to catch the attention of viewers, hoping to turn them into real clients. It’s hard not to agree with the results, as F1 has reaped several benefits from its show Drive to Survive, only to see copycat shows in tennis (Break Point), golf (Full Swing), and the NFL (Quarterback). These shows create an emotional connection to the athletes for a multitude of reasons, the most important being that they humanize them. No longer are they a faceless helmet.

C-lective offers the same kind of emotional connection that can bring deeper understanding and appreciation for your art. By creating a joint community of artists and patrons, we offer the unique ability to understand more than just a short paragraph on a gallery wall. C-lective provides you with the whole story—the entire person behind the canvas—and gives you a deeper understanding of the beautiful works in your home.

With C-lective’s patronage program and philosophy, we facilitate lasting relationships so that artists have the support they need to fully create and reflect with a clear mind, and patrons are provided unique access to new artists and encouraged to explore their own interests and ideas. We hope this symbiosis is twofold: by engaging with and following artists from their local start, early investments can pay off tenfold, resulting in a group that understands and aids each other in a never-before-seen process.

The power of the individual has never been easier to harness as we continue into the digital age, where separating art from artist grows more difficult. There is a sense of betrayal when a well-liked actor or actress turns out to have drastically different political views than their fanbase, as evidenced by Sydney Sweeney’s backlash to being a registered Republican, despite her rise to fame being fueled largely by shows and movies with young, liberal female audiences. This has been widely seen as a betrayal of young women’s political needs and has led to boycotts of shows and ad campaigns.

With the amount of information we have access to, it can be a challenge to find popular culture icons who genuinely embody and align with our values. It is becoming increasingly clear that companies and individuals are willing to sacrifice their values to cater to the political soup du jour. The best way to avoid these issues is to enter the art scene as a patron—finding an artist who can make the world more beautiful, visually but also emotionally and spiritually. Art should help us examine new and difficult concepts that we don’t yet have the language to express, not uplift the artist who is trying to make a quick buck by taking advantage of market trends (looking at you, NFTs).

C-lective brings the importance back to the person, making it a bright future to restore genuine humanity into the fine art market.