Christie’s eyes Austin, Texas as a potential hotspot for millennial clients

Christie’s will stage an exhibition of highlights from upcoming New York gross sales for the primary time in Austin, Texas, one of many fastest-growing cities in the US in a transfer to draw new millennial shoppers to the 257-year-old public sale home.

Publish-war, up to date and Latin American artwork public sale highlights can be on view in a pop-up at The Loren Lodge in downtown Austin for the three-day occasion, from 12 September till 14 September.

Christie’s has curated a various vary of labor to enchantment to potential consumers in several phases of their amassing journey, in accordance with Julian Ehrlich, the top of Christie’s post-war to current sale. Christie’s had beforehand accomplished outreach in Dallas and Houston, Texas’ two most-established artwork markets, Ehrlich says, however the pop-up in Austin would be the first programming within the metropolis by the public sale home.

Among the many works on show can be an untitled 2021 canvas by Rick Lowe, the Houston-based artist whose Undertaking Row Homes revitalised dozens of properties in Houston’s Third Ward into areas for artists and exhibitions. (In 2021, Lowe joined the roster of mega-gallery Gagosian.) The portray can be Lowe’s first to ever seem at public sale, and can be a part of Christie’s New York post-war to current sale this autumn. Works by Lynne Drexler, Amoako Boafo and Katherine Bradford can even be on view on the Austin pop-up, together with a Keith Haring print and sculpture by Fernando Botero.

The Austin outreach occasion is an element of a bigger technique to interact with youthful consumers, in accordance with Bonnie Brennan, Christie’s president for the Americas. Within the first half of 2023, about 30% of Christie’s prospects have been new shoppers, and about 39% of these have been millennials or youthful, she mentioned.

“We have seen a lot give attention to Austin, and we actually assume that there is a big alternative there to make connections,” Brennan says. “We thought this could be a terrific experiment, to take some core market materials there and demystify us in a solution to individuals who possibly have not engaged with us earlier than.”

Austin and the encircling Central Texas space have been among the many fastest-growing elements of the nation for years, however the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in a brand new wave of transplants to the town as extra People started to do business from home. Town noticed the most important web acquire of distant employees of any main US metropolis between 2020 and 2021, with 28,000 new residents working from house, in accordance with a New York Occasions evaluation of US Census knowledge.

“There was such an explosion in the course of the pandemic of individuals relocating to Texas, and a youthful demographic in Austin particularly. We actually started to speak severely about growing programming to serve that neighborhood,” Brennan says.

“There are extra collectors there as a result of so many individuals have moved there, however there’s already a wealthy tradition there, a cultural context,” Ehrlich says.

Austin has lengthy been related to creativity and counterculture, with a flourishing reside music scene and host to occasions like South by Southwest. Town’s expertise sector has seen explosive development through the years, together with places of work of the world’s largest tech companies like Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. The inflow of transplants has contributed to hovering rental costs and residing prices, which has pushed musicians and artists to relocate to smaller cities simply exterior of the town.