In Moscow the sixth blazar fair of Young Art, Cosmoscow’s official satellite fair, has just closed. With all round satisfaction among galleries, the organisers and the artists, who sell their works directly to collectors at the fair, what is the reason behind its success?

One day before blazar opened, journalists, then collectors were among the first to enter the neoclassical three-storey building of a former 19th century storage warehouse, the usual order of affairs when a fair opens from San Fran to Seoul. But collectors are always busy and impatient, and most have the spirit of a Soviet pioneer. You cannot keep up with them and Moscow is no exception. So, at the entrance to the fair, after a brief press conference, I literally found myself face to face with winning red dots scattered here and there next to works by young (under 35) artists; the packing area was in full swing, it almost felt like being in a supermarket. Indeed, everything was organised for a quick purchase. All the works were clearly on display with a label showing the price and a QR code linking to the artist’s web page. The artists themselves as well as a team of enthusiastic volunteers were the sellers. Well, there were no shopping trolleys at least.

This is a typical scene on opening day. “So, what have we got here?”, asks a man wearing an expensive suit, with a young assistant in tow. “This is Katya Zabelina from St Petersburg, who paints ceramic plaques with objects from her childhood memories and travels,” a mediator at the stand rattles off. “Each piece is priced at $350–500.” A couple of seconds of thought, and the buyer points to four such plaques, decorated with flowers and herbs, nailed to charred wooden boards. “I’ll take these!”  he says confidently. He then rushes off, and the assistant, with his haul in tow, hurries towards the packers. About half an hour later, I see them leave the building with bundles wrapped in blazar-brand tape. 

Such quick purchases were facilitated in part by the good reputation of this fair and its organisers, and perhaps in part by the lack of natural daylight and fresh air because the former warehouse did not have any windows. But above all, of course, it was the prices that quickened trade.

“We turn away artists who set unrealistic prices. We offer them our advice,” said the fair’s co-founder, Alexandra Lekomtseva. According to her, works on paper should cost between $100 and $600, while paintings range from $1,000 to $2,000, depending on the format and amount of work involved. The galleries set price ceilings. For instance, the most expensive piece found at the booths was priced at around $9,000 – that’s what a—s—t—r—a gallery asked for a painting by Chinese artist Zhang Jin Wei (b. 1989). On average, the price tag in all galleries was between $3,000 and $5,000. 

In addition to understanding how to price their works of art, these young talented artists were constantly reminded of their location: they are exhibiting their works in a museum space. And for almost all of them, it was the first time. The building was one of three wings of the Moscow Museum, enclosing a vast inner courtyard. From the launch of Blazar, Museum Director, Anna Trapkova, welcomed the fair and thereby attracting new younger audiences into the walls of the institution. It is a double win, because city museums are not the most popular or fashionable today, and Trapkova’s  support and involvement in Blazar were invaluable. Trapkova added: “The fact that the fair takes place during anniversary of the founding of Moscow, is a symbolic gesture. It means it has already become part of urban life.” 

The museum director does not have full control over the fair. There was almost no art in the museum courtyard was readying itself for public festivities over the holiday weekend and there were only small banners advertising the fair. Artists and their works for sale were selected by the organisers, although the reasons for their choice were not always clear. There was plenty to choose from: over 3,000 applications were submitted with only about fifty independent artists and twenty-six galleries (each with 1–3 artists) participating in the end. Perhaps this is why you heard negative remarks from some visitors: “I was hoping for inspiration and fresh ideas, but instead, I got derivative statements and decorative objects.”  

So, taking into account the unspoken censorship (there were multiple instances of this in previous years) what was selected for inclusion in the fair? There were mostly paintings, ceramic objects, and textiles – the types of work currently popular in commercial galleries. These included painted porcelain dinosaurs by Nadezhda Avdonina, each decorated with wings, flowers, or leaves (priced from $600). There were also small household objects and figurines by Maria Abdullaeva (b. 1998) ($120), and minimalist sculptures by Vera Shirdina (b. 2001) that explored liminal states in both living and non-living nature (priced at $600) — anthropomorphic objects hovering in the air on twisted steel rods. 

The paintings generally had similarly decorative themes, and were easy to understand with unchallenging content. The only difference lay in the skill level of recent graduates and the extent of their imagination. Showing at the Futuro gallery booth, were Semen Galinov’s large, quasi hyper-realistic canvases featuring fragments of clothing on a model. Alina Kugush (b. 1994) captured fragments of courtyard life (around $500), Anastasia Babynina (b. 1997) portrayed solitary figures in concrete urban landscapes, evoking the spirit of Edward Hopper (1982–1967) (from $1,600), while Katya Borshch explored self-reflection through fluid, semi-surrealistic imagery (from $800).

Embroidery, which has become a popular trend on the Russian art scene this year, was present in about a third of the artists’ works. Textile Art Triennale is currently on view at the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve in Moscow, and earlier this spring, the ‘Textile in Contemporary Art’  Biennale took place at the municipal Na Solyanke gallery. Works in this technique were in fact among the most interesting at the fair, as evidenced by impressive sales. These included painted canvases with embroidery in the style of Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) by Moscow artist Anna Nechaeva ($400–1,200), conceptual folk motifs by Mila Gushchina (b. 1993) at Grabar Gallery (from $800), and abstract works by Kristina Pashkova (b. 1992) (priced between $2,000–3,800).