Cultural Capital, Artist Identity, and Market Valuation in Contemporary Visual Art: Emerging Art Markets

The art market has seen tremendous growth over the past few decades, thanks to a number of things. Traditionally, contemporary visual art consisted of paintings and sculptures. Today, visual contemporary art includes digital art as well. Globalization and the advent of the internet both contribute largely to the growth of art markets. Emerging art markets bring together sellers with diverse cultural and social backgrounds. These emerging art markets merge buyers and sellers in ways traditional art markets never did. Not because it wasn’t a thing back then, but technology and social aspects had not caught up with the market. In art markets, cultural capital, artist identity, and market valuation are major factors in an artist's exposure, performance, and sustainability. These factors play key roles in emerging art markets currently, more than ever before. Traditionally, artwork was purchased under speculation; buyers were hoping to buy and resell at a profit. Essentially, it all centered on status symbols and the quirkier the artwork at times, the more expensive the piece would be.