A PROJECT AND A COMMUNITY FOR YOUNG CONTEMPORARY ART

Smartarea:

• Is a virtual space that selects, brings together, promotes, publicises and sells young emerging art from Italy and abroad
• Has a philosophy that breaks with custom: young art distributed and supported using the most appropriate instruments. In Italy, internet has not as yet been exploited to its full potential with regard to the art sector
• Is an international project. The site, like the staff, speaks English and Italian
• Is smARTnews, constantly updated information about young artists, their careers and performance at auction, and about the art world generally. Registered users of the site can choose to receive periodic newsletters containing reports and notices of new works for sale. We are not here just to sell. We want to ensure our artists are known, and their creative developments and professional careers discussed
• Is smARTforum, an area in which our artists, critics and users can debate freely about emerging art. You can discuss the works on sale, projects and arrivals, and in general about the creative development of our artists, together with a series of in-depth and timely items. Anyone can participate in the Smartarea community by registering for the forum
• Is smARTshows, virtual exhibitions of our young talent, including works of multimedia art, net-art, and video art. Every smARTshow is accompanied by a smART e-book, an on-line monograph produced by an art critic. After the middle of 2008, we will produce these exhibitions on-line, in which the critical analysis will be open to debate which we hope to stimulate in our forum
• Is smARTnights, evening events by invitation organised during major art fairs to enable the artists, their public and experts from the sector to meet in an atmosphere of informal creativity.

A CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY THAT OPERATES SOLELY ON-LINE

Smartarea:

• Is an on-line contemporary art gallery that presents only young artists of proven talent. Laying stakes on new talent means offering works with costs that are not too high and with a wide margin for growth
• Is not limited to selling: it provides intelligent investment strategies. We evaluate the solidity of the artist and the safety of the investment and, via our web-site, make available to all original, complete and transparent information about the most significant aspects of each artist, including critical texts and hard-hitting interviews, which in 30 seconds of reading open the door to an artist’s studio
• Also offers small works, drawings, prints and graphic works by its artists. These are not so demanding in terms of cost and enable even young art enthusiasts to start collecting
• Only operates on-line, but it protects the consumer, enabling him to see the work before purchase either at our offices in via Voghera 9/A in the centre of Milan, or at home
• Provides the greatest transparency for its customers. The prices of the works are always clearly indicated on-line. We have decided to work with art, not work as secret agents. Simple!
• Is smARTshop, a boutique offering artistic gadgets inspired by the legendary pop-shop of Keith Haring
• Is smARTsafety. Together with a certificate of authenticity, purchasers are given their work’s ‘identity card’, an indispensable document to assist the police in finding a work should it be lost or stolen.

A GALLERY THAT SELECTS SOLELY ON THE BASIS OF TALENT: YOUNG AND VERY YOUNG ARTISTS, EMERGING OR ALREADY ESTABLISHED

Our young artists are painters, video artists, photographers, performers of great quality: many already have an established presence on the market while others are in the process of making a name for themselves, and others yet prefer a development that is oriented more towards research and experimentation. What unites them is not a common style, current or vision of the world to be imposed. What unites them is bravura, talent and the fact of being fully and increasingly active; this is the only reason we have chosen them. For convenience, we have divided them into two categories: over 35 and under 35. All the artists have been selected with care and attention. But some of them, according to the analyses of our critics, are truly exceptional: in terms of artistic talent, for their originality, for their popularity on the market, whether potential or acquired. They are our top artists and we have decided to show them with a particular mark of esteem: the logo, which identifies them as a solid presence in the art sector. You will also note that there are also artists who have not yet joined the sector: these are the ones we are betting on, for it is with us that they are beginning to exhibit and compare their own work with other more consolidated presences. Smartarea rewards them with the same visibility as other, more noted artists. We do not keep them in the back shop. In the first place because we don’t have one (a back shop), and secondly because we believe talent must be allowed to establish itself freely.

A PROJECT CREATED BY ART LOVERS

Who has created Smartarea? Art lovers, artists, Internet and publicity professionals. We have a fine project and we are starting now.