At some point, the phrase “good artwork” quietly disappeared from the art market’s vocabulary.
In its place came expressions like “rising artist,” “sold-out exhibition,” and “best-selling series.”
The value of an artwork is no longer judged by the emotions it evokes or the meaning it holds.
 
Instead, it is measured by simple numbers:
How much was it sold for? How soon can it be resold?
 
This shift is not merely a matter of changing tastes.
Behind it lies a cold, calculated structure.
Where there are winners, there must inevitably be losers.
This is the reality of today’s art market — the reign of the Zero-Sum Game.
 
We are now witnessing a reality where, under the name of ‘art,’
the logic of capital increasingly consumes the essence of fine art.
The Crisis of Capitalism and Fine Art —
the current landscape of the art market starkly illustrates this theme.
 
In this landscape, artworks are no longer objects of appreciation but of transaction,
and artists are consumed not as creators, but as assets.
 
This transformation is no accident.
Today’s art market operates under a meticulously designed mechanism,

where desire, speculation, and manufactured expectation are intricately woven together.



Speculative Collecting: Replacing Affection with Profit

There was a time when "collecting" implied affection and devotion.
To collect a work of art was to resonate with an artist’s world and to share a journey through time.
Today, however, many collectors prioritize a different calculation:
"How much will this artist's value rise?"
The emotional depth and authenticity of a work have been sidelined.
Exhibition histories, gallery affiliations, and follower counts on social media
have replaced meaning as metrics of value.
Artworks are no longer "collected" but "held" —
briefly, and always with a single goal: capital gains.


 
Pump and Dump: Engineered Rise, Engineered Abandonment

When an artist is said to be "rising," it is never by coincidence.
Certain collectors and dealers strategically buy up large volumes of an artist’s work,
stage exhibitions, generate media exposure, and orchestrate viral buzz across social media.
Once the rumor — "this artist is hot" — spreads, auctions are triggered.
Prices surge beyond expectations, and the market roars with excitement.
Yet the frenzy is short-lived.
At the peak of the hype, those who engineered the rise quietly cash out and disappear.
What remains are artists reduced to mere names,
and collectors burdened with overpriced works.


 
Flipping: Images in Perpetual Rotation

Flipping begins the moment an artwork is purchased —
with the intent of reselling it as quickly as possible.
The time a piece spends hanging on a wall is often shorter than the time it takes to reappear at auction.
The act of appreciation vanishes, replaced by a relentless turnover of inventory.
The only thing that matters is timing the sale.
Within this system, artists lose the opportunity to build long narratives.
Only the "tradeable artist," not the "valuable artist," survives.
Art shifts from philosophy to graph,
from story to number.
And at some point, art ceases to be art.


 
Market Price Rigging: Staged Surprises

A few works are quietly traded at high prices behind closed doors.
Soon after, they reemerge at auctions and smash expected estimates.
The media celebrates the record sales; social media amplifies the sensation.
Everyone believes: "A star is born."
But behind the scenes lies a meticulously engineered reality —



Market Price Rigging.

Market prices are no longer the organic product of genuine demand.
They are the result of orchestrated expectations and manipulated hopes.
What appears to be spontaneous success
is in fact a carefully staged spectacle.


 
Zero-Sum Game: Winners and Losers

The art market today is not a space of communal accumulation.
It is a battleground of competition and consumption.
If someone profits from selling at a high price,
someone else bears the burden of having bought at that price.
Artists may appear to stand at the center of this system,
but in truth, they are the ones most rapidly consumed and discarded.
The label of "successful artist" guarantees neither longevity nor survival.
Within this game,
most artists find themselves pushed into the losing side.


 
In the Midst of This Game, How Can Art Survive?
Speculative Collecting, Pump and Dump, Flipping, Market Price Rigging, Zero-Sum Game.

These five terms are not tools of simple criticism.
They are questions — about how we consume art,
and whose interests the structure of consumption ultimately serves.
For art to reconnect with people,
for the language of artists to be reinterpreted and understood anew,
we must move toward an ecosystem centered not on price, but on meaning.
We need a world where criticism is alive,
where curation functions authentically,
and where the time of the artist is respected.
Art is, at its core,
not about what sells, but about what endures.
It is not about asking who wins,
but remembering who remains in the end.
Art is the act of enduring time.
 

The Age of Reification: The Crisis of Capitalism and Fine Art —
within this sweeping tide,
the real question is: What will we choose?

Jay Jongho Kim graduated from the Department of Art Theory at Hongik University and earned his master's degree in Art Planning from the same university. From 1996 to 2006, he worked as a curator at Gallery Seomi, planning director at CAIS Gallery, head of the curatorial research team at Art Center Nabi, director at Gallery Hyundai, and curator at Gana New York. From 2008 to 2017, he served as the executive director of Doosan Gallery Seoul & New York and Doosan Residency New York, introducing Korean contemporary artists to the local scene in New York. After returning to Korea in 2017, he worked as an art consultant, conducting art education, collection consulting, and various art projects. In 2021, he founded A Project Company and is currently running the platforms K-ARTNOW.COM and K-ARTIST.COM, which aim to promote Korean contemporary art on the global stage.