Twelve galleries are participating in the second formal edition of the Dream art fair, an online-only event “accessible to anyone with a device and an internet connection” (dreamfair.org, until 8 May). Rebecca May Marston and Barnie Page, the directors of London’s participating Limoncello gallery, are behind the initiative. “It became so depressing sitting at an art fair and not making money,” May Marston says.
She first experimented with selling online-only during Art Basel in Hong Kong in 2015. "We sent clients previews of what we had, as if we were doing the fair, and it worked—we sold things." When the gallery launched Dream Hong Kong in March this year, its profits were "more than at the MiArt (Milan) and Art Cologne fairs combined.”
Dream will run concurrently with other major art fairs, including Dream Basel in June and Dream London in October. Galleries do not have to pay to participate (plus, there is the added bonus of not having to pay for shipping or travel). Galleries participating in this month’s edition include Rob Tufnell of Cologne and London, Exile of Berlin and Grey Noise of Dubai.