Gagosian Gallery opens virtual doors to VIP Art Fair online – seven days to go

Gagosian Gallery launches its Viewing In Private Art Fair (VIP Art Fair) billed as “the world’s first exclusively online art fair”. Viewing in Private” has assembled 139 of the world’s leading contemporary art galleries from 30 countries in what they are calling an “unprecedented live event”.

TICKETS AND VIP TICKET BENEFITS
VIP Art Fair is free to browse, though registration is required.

VIP tickets allow for special access including:
Integrated chat and messaging system for live interaction with galleries
Eligibility to view galleries’ private rooms
Price ranges for each artwork, and ability to search within certain price ranges
Access to the VIP Lounge

HOURS
Opens on Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. EST and concludes on Sunday, January 30, 2011, at 7:59 a.m. EST.

You can browse online from Saturday, January 22 to Sunday, January 30, 2011 but if you want to go deeper into the experience and interact, you will have to pay $100 if you want to have unlimited access to the fair from now for the entire week or $20 after the 24 January.

EXHIBITION HALLS
The VIP Art Fair is divided into three distinct exhibition halls:
VIP Premier: comprised of 91 leading galleries, each presenting 15 to 20 works depending on booth size – large or medium.
VIP Focus: comprised of 24 galleries, each presenting eight works by a single artist.
VIP Emerging: comprised of 24 galleries, each presenting 10 works produced within the last two years by emerging artists.

“Increasingly over the last decade the artworld has gone global, with important events happening around the world. Art collectors from Dallas to Kuala Lumpur can find it difficult to travel to all of the events and yet they don’t want to miss out. Three years ago, when we began conceptualizing VIP Art Fair, we wanted to harness the international reach of the Internet to give access to the best contemporary art from anywhere in the world,” stated James Cohan, owner of James Cohan Gallery in New York and Shanghai.