THIS WEEK'S HOT TOPIC
It’s summertime, which, for galleries (especially those in New York and Europe), means group shows. Why?
It started in the old days as a way for small, mom-and-pop-style galleries to take a break from their typical, six-days-a-week work schedules. These shows were less expensive and effort-intensive, and offered dealers a chance to "audition" artists to customers, staff, and the rest of the roster.
Back then, it was based on the assumption that collectors were out of town in the summer. Now, collectors aren't coming the rest of the year either. Given the percentage of sales conducted digitally and at art fairs, July and August aren’t necessarily the profit outliers they once were. Now, the summer show is more of a breather than a business strategy.
But these exhibitions can be sneaky good. More than a trial balloon for artists, they allow galleries to loosen their collars, get experimental, and have a little fun. They often provide a platform for young curators, and some dealers even show their employees’ work. A smart gallery might take the rare opportunity to stand out from the noise by putting on its best show of the year during the hottest months.
3…THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HAMPTONS’ SUMMER ART SCENE
1
The New York art world's signature summer fêtes are the splashy galas that take place across the Hamptons. The jewel of the East End, the Parrish Art Museum, will host its Midsummer Gala on July 18. It’s not as exclusive as it seems: tickets to the cocktail party, dinner, and after-party are all available for purchase separately through the Parrish's website. Another quintessential summer event (and a perfect opportunity to rub shoulders with curators, artists, and patrons) is the famed Watermill Center Summer Benefit, where special live performances are activated all over the grounds. This year's gathering carries special significance as the institution's first benefit following the passing of its founder, Robert Wilson. Finally, in early August, East Hampton's Guild Hall will host its own annual gala, honoring the institution’s leader, Andrea Grover, after a decade at the helm.
2
There are a ton of historic artist homes out East to explore. In East Hampton, the Elaine de Kooning House hosts residencies and often allows for tours, as does the Pollock-Krasner House nearby. (It's thrilling to step into Jackson Pollock’s studio and see all of the paint spattered onto the action artist’s floor.) LongHouse Reserve, the home of the late art collector Jack Lenor Larsen, has a sculpture garden and rotating collection.
3
Many of the summer's most talked-about exhibitions are on the East End of Long Island. Galerie Sardine, the Tribeca gallery founded by Valentina Akerman, has quickly become one of the city's most closely watched new spaces. Last summer, Akerman won over Hamptons audiences, too, by mounting a series of exhibitions at a beautiful home in Amagansett. This season, paintings by Farrell Brickhouse will be on view through Labor Day. Dia Bridgehampton is always an essential stop on the Hamptons art circuit, thanks to the Dan Flavin Art Institute. Alongside Flavin's luminous fluorescent works, Mexican artist Alan Ruiz will present an architecturally scaled installation that intervenes in the space designed by Richard Gluckman and Flavin. Another must-see exhibition is “This Land: Considering the American Landscape,” a group show at Eric Fischl and April Gornik’s space The Church in Sag Harbor, curated by Donna De Salvo and Seph Rodney. The exhibition brings together contemporary artists like Kent Monkman, Sky Hopinka, and Zoe Leonard with selections from Dan Flavin's personal collection of Hudson River School paintings.
A NUMBER TO KNOW
50 years
The aging of the special edition Yamazaki whiskey that recently set the record for the most expensive bottle of the Japanese spirit ever sold at auction. The one-of-one 700mL handle, crafted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the posh Club Natsume in Nagoya, fetched HK$8.25m (around $1m) at Bonhams Hong Kong on May 30.
Although young people are drinking less than ever on a recreational basis, collectors of high-end liquor have been insatiable lately. Compared with the first quarter of 2025, auction sales of spirits grew almost 70% by value at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in the opening three months of this year, reaching around $6.8m, according to data from ArtTactic. (Phillips doesn’t offer fine wines or spirits.) The same two auction houses also sold 1,742 lots in the spirits category from January through March—the highest total of any first quarter dating back to 2016.
The Yamazaki name is one big reason for the excitement. In August 2020, a 55-year-old bottle went for HK$6.2m (around $800,000)—a record at the time. That bottle was from a limited run of 100, however, making it less rare than the unique, 50-year-old production that now wears the crown.
Regardless, the next time someone in the art world tells you the auction market is still struggling, you can answer back that one of the best counterarguments isn’t in a frame or on a pedestal; it’s inside a bottle.
—Tim Schneider / The Gray Market
ASK: ACCESS SOPHISTICATED KNOWLEDGE
Jai D. ASKed: With the middle market under pressure and capital increasingly concentrated at the top, where do you think the most interesting new value is being created in the art world?
Josh Baer for NoReserve: “Value” implies objectivity, but in art, it is a subjective term. There is financial value, historical value, emotional value, sentimental value, etc. In my mind, 99% of works by emerging artists under, say, $20,000, carry little long-term value. A piece at this price is more like a vacation to the Caribbean—you come back with $0, but you’ve accrued other kinds of value.
At the top end of the market, artworks are more like repositories of value than high-yield investments. When Ken Griffin buys a work for $250 million, it is not going to outpace inflation and the opportunity cost of his money. When interest rates were under 2% for artworks financed, there was much greater room for growth and investment-grade profitability with less carrying-cost risk.
Now you specifically said the middle market. That term means something different to different people. To a billionaire, that may mean under $500k; to a gallery on the Lower East Side, that may mean a work for $50k or less. Experience has shown that the only lasting values are great works—ones that museums would be happy to own or be gifted. The rest is noise, and that's why those galleries often struggle trying to sell expensive works that are "fine" or "respectable." They make those sales when the market is so vibrant that the regular collector cannot access the great works and has to settle for what is offered.
Have your own question for the NoReserve team? Reply to this email or reach out to us on Instagram, @no.reserve. Readers whose submissions we choose get a special prize—six free months of our paid newsletter, The Baer Faxt.
2 MINUTES WITH…
The 10th edition of the Seattle Art Fair opens next week, marking an important cultural milestone for the city’s underrated art scene. Ahead of the fair, we sat down with Scott Stulen, director of the Seattle Art Museum, for a conversation about the fair, Seattle's artistic legacy, and its evolving collector base. As an artist and a museum director, Stulen has a unique perspective on how institutions can navigate this moment of rapid change. We can learn a lot about the future by looking at the past, he reminded us. See a teaser from the conversation below, or catch the whole thing ➡️ here.
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