This Entrepreneurial Art-Fair Veteran Is Sick of Art Fairs. So She’s Launching an Alternative Inside a Lavish London Mansion

A former art fair head is taking
a gamble on a new species of art fair without the booths, which
launches in London this May. 

Dubbed Eye of the Collector, the commercial
exhibition is the brainchild of Nazy Vassegh, a London-based art
adviser and the ex-CEO of Masterpiece. It will take place May 13
through 16 in London, coinciding with some auctions and other fairs
including Photo London, Draw Art Fair London, and the Museums +
Heritage show.

“There are lots of fairs around the world and
they all feel the same experientially from the visitors’ and the
collectors’ points of view,” Vassegh tells Artnet News. “So it was
very important to me to evolve that into a scenario whereby it
became experientially an enjoyable format.”

The self-funded experiment is
being run by Vassegh and directed by another ex-Masterpiece
colleague, Natalie Laverack.
It seems a daring move to launch another art fair among an already-
crowded landscape, but Vassegh explains that Eye of the Collector
is not really a fair in any conventional sense.

“It would have been quite easy
with my background to go and start another fair,” Vassegh tells
Artnet News. “But I really felt it was important to deliver
something fresh and exciting that the market and the collectors
would respond to.”

Vassegh says that she herself
has avoided labeling the initiative an art fair, describing it
instead as “a creatively-driven selling exhibition.” Nevertheless,
people buzzing about it began calling it an “alternative fair” and
the moniker has stuck.

Beyond the White Tent

“I wanted to move away from the
white boxes and big tents, and into a grand domestic setting that
is sort of like an imaginary
collector’s home,” Vassegh says, adding that she wanted the works
of art to reclaim center-stage rather than a gallery’s branding
strategy. “It’s about living with art and artworks,” she
says.

As such, choosing a venue for
the fair was an all-important decision. Vassegh settled on a
late Victorian neo-Gothic mansion
in central London. The
ornate house was commissioned by the world’s richest man in 1892,
the statesman and collector William Waldorf Astor. Vassegh is
hoping people will be drawn in to take a peek inside one of
London’s historic buildings, designed by the architect
John Loughborough
Pearson, who is better known
for his cathedrals.

Eye of the Collector will show a
boutique selection of art across all disciplines and time periods
from ancient to contemporary, an idea that sprang from the art
adviser’s 25 years of experience in the art world.

“Many years ago, I set up
something called Sotheby’s Preferred, which is a top-tier client
program at Sotheby’s. The main focus of that was about
cross-selling and cross-collecting,” Vassegh says. “So this isn’t a
new phenomenon in the art world, it is a label that a lot of people
are using.” She adds that in her work as an independent art
adviser, she has found some of the most interesting collections to
be those which juxtapose old with new, and contain different types
of artworks.

Some 30 dealers are taking part
in the first edition, which Vassegh describes as mostly
international galleries that also
have a base in London. The exhibitor list is slated to be released
in March, and Vassegh promises that there will be some “notable
galleries” on it, although there will also be a range of galleries
with a lower price range taking part. “When you go into a
collector’s home, you get things across all price ranges,” she
explains.

Vassegh sees Eye of the
Collector as the next
generation of presenting artwork for sale by galleries. Galleries
big and small have been charged a flat participation fee, which she
says is still “a lot less
expensive” than getting a booth and dressing it at any other art
fair.

“We have priced ourselves very
competitively because one of the important things was to support
the market and the marketplace in London,” Vassegh says. “This is a
city that I’ve grown up with and which has looked after me and
supported me in the art world for nearly 30 years and I feel very
close to it.”

As to whether she is hoping the
first edition will attract investors, Vassegh wouldn’t comment. For
the moment, she said, she is purely focused on making the inaugural
edition a commercial success for the dealers.

Eye of the Collector runs May
13 through 16 at 2 Temple Place, London, and is open to the public
May 15 and 16.

The post This Entrepreneurial Art-Fair Veteran Is Sick of
Art Fairs. So She’s Launching an Alternative Inside a Lavish London
Mansion appeared first on artnet News.