According to the Art Market Report by Art Basel and UBS for 2023, France is the fourth largest market in the world after the United States, the United Kingdom and China, with a sales volume of nearly USD 5 billion in 2022, a historic record corresponding to a 7% market share. This dynamic is attracting more and more international players who are seduced by the artistic aura and multicultural offer of Pariser Platz. Most players in the French art market agree: in 2022, Paris has become the most attractive of the European capitals, despite an unstable geopolitical context due to the post-Covid difficulties, inflation and the uncertainties of the war in Ukraine. And although London remains the European stronghold for auctions, it has suffered from Brexit, which has prompted several gallery owners to turn to the French capital, such as David Zwirner, who will open a space in the Marais district from 2019. "Brexit is changing the situation," he told the Financial Times at the time. "My gallery in London will be a British gallery, not a European gallery. I am European and want to stay that way." Successful visibility: several of his artists were in the program of Parisian institutions, such as∙le∙s Franz West and Alice Neel at the Centre Pompidou, Gordon Matta-Clark at the Jeu de Paume, Anni and Josef Albers at the Musée d'Art moderne (MAM) in Paris or Joan Mitchell at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. In addition, the Art Basel/UBS report points to "a considerable increase in collectors in the 500,000 to 1 million dollar price range". France now appears to be perfectly positioned to appeal to this target group. The French capital is characterized by a cultural offering that has been second to none in recent years. The Louis Vuitton Foundation has set up shop, the Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection has moved in and the interest of major museums in contemporary art has increased. In addition, the Emerige Foundation of collector Laurent Dumas, which focuses on the French scene, will open an art center on Île Seguin in 2026. Paris is not only a first-class marketplace, but has also developed into a platform for exchange, conversation and experimentation with a strong international appeal.

SUPPORTING AND AUGMENTING HUMAN CREATIVITY OR THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF CREATIVITY Can we use artificial intelligence to support human creativity and discovery? A new trend known as assisted creation has important implications for creativity. On the one hand, collaborative platforms such as those developed as part of the European PRAISE music learning project (Yee-king and D'Inverno 2014) facilitate the acquisition of new creative skills. PRAISE is a social network-based learning platform that involves humans and intelligent software agents providing feedback to a music student on composition, arrangement and performance. Students upload their solutions to a learning unit (on compositions, arrangements or performances) provided by a tutor. Software agents as well as fellow students and tutors then analyze these solutions and provide feedback. In the case of a musical composition, for example, the agent may say: "Your modulation sounds very good, but you could try going up a major third in bars 5 to 8". During performances, other intelligent software agents compare the student's performances with those previously recorded by the tutor when he or she uploaded the learning unit to the platform. A camera records the student's movements and the software agents also provide feedback on possible incorrect postures. These types of tools, which accelerate the acquisition of skills, are leading to a phenomenon known as the "democratization of creativity". As early as 1962, Douglas Engelbart (Engelbart 1962) wrote about a "typewriter that would enable the use of a new text-writing process [...] It would allow ideas to be integrated more easily and thus redirect creativity more continuously". Engelbart not only predicted increased individual creativity, he also wanted to increase collective intelligence and group creativity by improving group collaboration and problem-solving skills. One basic idea is that creativity is a social process that can be enhanced by technology. If we project these ideas into the future, we could imagine a world where creativity is easily accessible and (almost) anyone can write like the great writers, paint like the great masters, compose high quality music and even discover new forms of creative expression. For someone who has no particular creative skills, it is a great relief to be able to acquire them through assisted creative systems. Although this futuristic scenario is still pure fiction, there are already several examples of assisted creativity. One of the most interesting is the assisted percussion system developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology (Bretan and Weinberg 2016). It consists of a robotic arm that enables percussionists to play with three hands. The 61-centimetre-long "intelligent arm" can be attached to the musician's shoulder. It reacts to human gestures and to the music it hears. For example, when the drummer plays the cymbals, the robotic arm plays the cymbals. When the drummer switches to the drums, the mechanical arm switches to the tomtom. Another result of great interest for assisted creativity is the genre-to-genre transfer of musical style and harmony developed at the SONY Computer Lab in Paris (Martin et al. 2015; Papadopoulos et al. 2016), which helps composers to harmonize a piece of music of one genre according to the style of a completely different genre. For example, to harmonize a jazz standard in the style of Mozart. CONCLUSIONS: APPARENT OR REAL CREATIVITY? Margaret Boden pointed out that even if an artificially intelligent computer were to become as creative as Bach or Einstein, for many it would only be apparent and not truly creative. I fully agree with her on the two reasons she gives for this rejection, namely the lack of intentionality and our reluctance to integrate artificially intelligent agents into our society. The lack of intentionality is a direct consequence of the "Chinese Room" argument (Searle 1980), according to which computer programs can only perform syntactic manipulations of symbols, but are unable to give them semantic content. It is generally recognized that intentionality can be explained by causal relations. However, it is also true that existing computer programs lack the relevant causal links necessary to show intentionality. But perhaps future, possibly anthropomorphic, "embodied" artificial intelligences, i.e. agents equipped not only with advanced software but also with various kinds of complex sensors that allow them to interact with the environment, will contain sufficient causal links to confer meaning and intentionality to symbols. As for social rejection, this is why we are so reluctant to accept that non-biological agents (or even biological ones, as in the case of Nonja, a twenty-year-old Viennese painter whose abstract paintings were exhibited and admired in art galleries, but whose work was devalued after it was revealed that he was an orangutan in the Vienna Zoo) can be creative, because they have no natural place in our human society and the decision to accept them would have far-reaching social consequences. It is therefore much easier to say that they appear to be intelligent, creative etc. than to say that they are. In a word, it is a moral problem, not a scientific one. A third reason for rejecting the creativity of computer programs is that they are not conscious of their achievements. While it is true that machines have no consciousness and may never think consciously, the absence of consciousness is not a major reason to deny the potential for creativity or even intelligence. After all, computers would not be the first unconscious creators; evolution is the first example, as Stephen J. Gould (1996) brilliantly points out: "If creation requires a visionary creator, how does blind evolution manage to create new things that are as great as we are?

AARON is a robotic system developed over many years by artist and programmer Harold Cohen (1995) that is able to pick up a paintbrush with its robotic arm and paint on a canvas without assistance. It paints people in a botanical garden by not only copying an existing drawing, but creating as many unique drawings on the subject as necessary. AARON has never seen a person walking in a botanical garden, but he has gained knowledge about postures and plants with the help of rulers. AARON's knowledge and the way he uses it is not comparable to the knowledge we humans have and use, because human knowledge is based on experiencing the world, and humans experience the world with their bodies, their brains, their reproductive organs, things that computers don't have. But just like humans, AARON has acquired its knowledge cumulatively. For example, once he understands the concept of a leaf cluster, he can use this knowledge whenever he needs it. For AARON, plants exist in terms of their size, the thickness of the branches in relation to their height, the rate at which the branches thin out as they grow, the degree of branching, the angle at which the branches sprout, and so on. The same principles also apply to leaf and cluster formation. By manipulating these factors, AARON is able to create a wide range of plant types and will never draw the same plant twice, even if you draw a series of plants of the same species. In addition, AARON needs to know what the human body is made of, what parts it has and how big they are in relation to each other. He also needs to know how the body parts move and what types of joints there are and how mobile they are. Since a body moves coherently and is not just a collection of independently moving parts, AARON also needs to know how the body's movements are coordinated, e.g. what the body needs to do to maintain balance. Conceptually, this is not as difficult as it may seem, at least for upright postures with one or two feet on the ground. It's just a matter of keeping the center of gravity over the base and, if necessary, using the arms to regain a balanced posture. He also knows about erasure, so that if the human body is partially covered, for example, only one arm and/or one leg can be seen. However, AARON knows that humans normally have two arms and two legs, so if he doesn't cover something, he always draws two limbs of each. This means that AARON cannot "break" any rules and will never "imagine" the possibility of drawing, for example, people with only one leg or other forms of abstraction. Consequently, AARON's creativity is very limited and anything but human. Nevertheless, his paintings have been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In a sense, then, AARON passes a kind of Turing test of creativity, for his works are of a quality that can be exhibited alongside those of some of the best human artists. Simon Colton's The Painting Fool (Colton et al. 2015) is much more autonomous than AARON. Although the software does not physically apply paint to a canvas, it digitally simulates numerous styles, from collage to brushstrokes. In Colton's words: The Painting Fool requires minimal instruction and can create its own concepts by searching for materials online. The software does its own research and scrolls through social media sites. The idea behind it is that this approach allows it to produce art that communicates something to the viewer because it is essentially drawing about human experience, about how we act, feel and discuss on the internet. In 2009, for example, The Painting Fool created his own interpretation of the war in Afghanistan from a newspaper article. The result is a juxtaposition of Afghan citizens, explosions and graves of war victims. Other examples of the application of computer creativity to painting and other visual arts are the works of Karl Sims and Jon McCormack. "Reaction Diffusion Media Wall" (Sims 2016) is based on the interactive simulation of chemicals reacting and diffusing to create dynamic patterns that correspond to the reaction-diffusion equations that govern biological morphogenesis. This work is on display at the Museum of Science in Boston. Earlier work by Karl Sims includes the use of advanced computer techniques to interactively develop images with his Genetics Images system (Sims 1994). Jon McCormack is also exploring how biological processes can be successfully applied in his project "Design After Nature" (McCormack 2014). In another project, Creative Ecosystems, he explores concepts and metaphors of biological ecosystems (McCormack and D'Inverno 2012) as a means of enhancing human creativity in digital art. There are many more examples from the field of visual arts. The ones mentioned here are not only representative, but in my opinion also the most important contributions in their field.

One of this year's most important exhibitions commemorating half a century since Picasso's death opened in Malaga in May. Under the direction of Carmen Giménez, the museum's first director, the Picasso Museum presented the exhibition "Picasso the Sculptor. Matter and Body", which will travel to the Guggenheim in Bilbao in the fall and is the most comprehensive exhibition on the artist's sculptural production to date. As with most of the Malaga-born artist's works, the focus of this exhibition is on the body as the artist's instrument, but also as the ultimate goal of representation. The works gathered here date from the period between 1909 and 1964 and thus cover the most productive periods of his work and very different concerns. They were also made from a wide range of materials, from wood to bronze, iron, plaster, cement and metal. This continuity in his use of the three dimensions and the variety of styles and techniques he employed in his sculptural work prove that this discipline was not a subordinate or secondary language for Picasso, but one of his forms of expression alongside painting, drawing, engraving and ceramics: each of them allowed him to express different aspects of his work, and on more than one occasion he emphasized that he did not establish hierarchies. This was especially true from his Cubist phase onwards, but even at the beginning of his career he created sculptures with the freedom of an autodidact who was not afraid to question rules. Many of these early works accompanied him throughout his life, from workshop to workshop and from apartment to apartment, as can be seen in many photographs (and in the various exhibitions of the artist's paintings that have been programmed in recent weeks, such as those of Blanca Berlin, the Picasso Museum in Buitrago and the Fernán Gómez Center). Not only were they part of his house, but over time he worked on the basis of their motifs and developments. The exhibition in Málaga brings the sculptures into a dialog with the canvases from his collection, as well as placing finished pieces and models and works considered important in relation to other, less noticed works. In this way, the public can gain a complete overview of his journey through cubism, abstraction, the primitive and the found object, with the body, as mentioned, taking center stage. The first exhibition dedicated to the sculptural work of the author of Guernica did not take place until 1966, when he was already eighty-five years old. It was organized by the Petit Palais in Paris and brought together dozens of works that the artist had kept for decades. It is estimated that there were seven hundred of his sculptures, compared to the nearly 4,500 canvases he produced. But a proper review of Picasso's development would have to take into account their mutual influences and shifts beyond numbers; his reinventions not only took shape in different disciplines, but created new connections between them. Among his earliest works in Málaga we find his first work in clay, Seated Woman (1902), created while still in Barcelona in the studio of his sculptor friend Emili Fontbona, and Head of a Woman (Fernande) (1909), which clearly bears Cubist traits. Only three years later, he had already changed direction by transforming space into sculptural material, when this was still a novelty: his series of six polychrome bronzes Copa de absenta (Absinthe Cups, 1914), in which the emptiness indicates transparency, was therefore very surprising. At this time, in the mid-1910s, he also began to incorporate obvious materials such as string, paper, cardboard, sand, feathers, tinplate and glue into his works. He would stop using these materials around ten years later, with a guitar from 1924 being the last work designed according to these parameters before he came under the influence of Surrealism. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, following on from his collaboration with Julio González, Picasso designed constructions in welded iron and later figures of human forms in wood or plaster, elements that allowed for a stronger suggestion of sensuality. Five of these works, created in Boigeloup, were shown in the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 French Universal Exhibition. His next studio was the Grands-Augustins, where he set up a special area for the creation of sculptures. If family and everyday scenes dominated his canvases in the forties and fifties, this was also the case in the three dimensions. His new interest in ceramics, awakened in him by Georges and Suzanne Ramié, had to do with his establishment in Vallauris in 1948, where he also created numerous assemblages. These works accompanied him when he settled in Cannes, then in Vauvenargues and Mougins: his houses were practically interior sculpture gardens, as immortalized by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Douisneau, Irving Penn or David Douglas Duncan. We can assume that he preferred neither to show these works in his exhibitions nor to sell them because he wanted them to remain part of his everyday life. In the fifties, he used old wood, pieces of furniture and metal plates, among other things. Some of these projects were transformed into sheet metal by the artisan Joseph-Marius Tiola, who enlarged them and even painted them (in others, rust was allowed to leave its mark). In works of this period, such as Bathers, the void continued to take on the same structural significance as the volumes. This evolution towards larger dimensions continued in the sixties: Carl Nesjar convinced Picasso to enlarge his designs so that they could be shown outdoors in different cities, and to use resistant concrete for the same reason. We will see a model for the sculpture of the Richard J. Daley Center (1964) in the center of Málaga. The finished work is 20 meters high, made of steel and has been on display in front of the Civic Center in Chicago since 1967: It is a geometric face whose volume is suggested by the contrasts between emptiness and matter. https://youtu.be/tsIDj1wvAas

Digital art has long thrived on the Internet. But recently, artists have turned to a different form of art: NFTs. Non-Fungible Tokens, also known as NFTs, are taking the world by storm and completely rewriting the rules for modern art. NFTs are a small aspect of the digital art world that is changing the way people access and interact with art. An NFT is a digital object whose authenticity and ownership is stored in an online database. This digital object can be anything from music to tweets and everything in between. The proof of ownership authenticates the object so that it can be traded and sold much like a tangible item. Recently, NFTs have been all the rage on social media. After many influencers and celebrities have paid hefty prices to own their digital artworks, everyone else now wants to know how they can get in on the action. Now, digital artworks registered as NFTs are being sold for millions of dollars. Many see them as symbols of wealth and power, while others are fascinated by the easy access to high-quality art. Rather than appreciating digital art for its beauty and elegance, the new NFT craze is becoming all about ownership and financial gain. Although there are many different forms of digital art, not all digital artworks are considered NFTs. To become an NFT, the digital artwork must go through the process of being registered on a blockchain. Blockchains are used to store information in a network of computers and online databases. NFTs are coveted because they use a blockchain to store and verify information about the artwork, such as the date of purchase, price, previous owner and other important facts when selling a digital object. Blockchains are special because they eliminate the need for governments or banks. They also provide a secure service that cannot be altered, hacked or compromised in any way. Every single purchase is stored and added to a growing data chain. NFTs are no ordinary digital artworks, as they come with a digital certificate of authenticity. This means that whoever buys the NFT now owns the artwork and all copies circulating on the internet. NFTs can be any digital object, from art to videos and even the concert ticket you download to your cell phone. What makes NFTs so special is the fact that they are a unique token that can retain its own value. This means that NFTs can be bought, sold and traded like shares on the stock exchange. Anyone can take a screenshot or find a way to copy an NFT, but that's not the same as owning it. While this wasn't always the case, NFTs are now being bought and sold in the hopes that they will increase in value due to their popularity. Although NFTs have been around for years, they have recently skyrocketed in value due to their prominence in the mainstream media. One of the best examples of this trend is the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT series. This was a series of digital artworks that were sold at astronomical prices to celebrities and other high-end consumers. These collectible artworks double as membership cards, giving owners access to secret perks and parties. This idea of an exclusive VIP membership appeals to many as it allows ordinary people to socialize with celebrities at parties and other private events. This is another way that viewers can devalue the artwork, seeing it as social opportunities rather than an expression of passion and creativity. One of the most famous Bored Apes is the EminApe. Named after Eminem, this ape was purchased by Eminem for $460,000. Just when fans thought this was an absurd price tag, Justin Bieber set the record for buying the most expensive Bored Ape collectible of all time: He spent $1.29 million on his NFT. NFTs have begun to take away the natural beauty of digital art, forcing artists to adapt to trends. Without following the hype, artists are struggling to make money and gain an audience. Now many NFTs are used for their profitability rather than their creativity. Modern art is changing with the new wave of digital art and could potentially commoditize other artistic mediums as well.

What is contemporary art? Where does traditional art end and contemporary art begin? A few centuries ago, art was a decorative luxury object. Today, it no longer serves to decorate interiors, but to convey experiences, thoughts and ideas. Art began to lose its value at the end of the 19th century, when the simple reproduction of visual images lost its value with the development of technology. Artists began to explore and rethink light, color, form and the nature of art. As a result, numerous new movements emerged: from Expressionism to Suprematism. The trends of the twentieth century can be described by the term "modern", the trends of the second and twenty-first centuries by "contemporary". When we talk about modern art, we usually mean contemporary art. However, its foundations were laid by the modernists, and there is still no uniform classification of the movements. And the principles of perception are largely similar for both. Who is a contemporary artist? A painter creates paintings. There are also photographers, sculptors and graphic artists. But all of these are genres of fine art, which can only be one of the tools of a contemporary artist. Or perhaps not: there are also installations, red media, action art and much more. A fur cup, a sewn-up mouth or an empty room can become art. You don't have to paint, sculpt or draw to be an artist. You can and should even search for and invent new forms or tools yourself. Who can become a contemporary artist? First of all, someone who lives in a contemporary context and has their own vision. Contemporary art involves the viewer in a dialog, talks about current phenomena and problems of society. That is why you first have to understand these processes and what is happening in the art world. A contemporary artist needs courage, even fearlessness. Actionists, for example, use their own bodies as a tool. In her performance Rhythm 0, Marina Abramovic leaves her body to the viewer and provides them with 72 objects, including a gun and a knife. Not all artists test themselves. But one should not be afraid to experiment, challenge and talk about difficult subjects. What is the essence of contemporary art? Is it aesthetic? The aesthetic approach was only decisive for the visual arts and exhausted itself at the beginning of the twentieth century. Moreover, the criteria of aesthetics are vague and subjective. But learning to recognize beauty in unexpected things is interesting and useful. If you're an aesthete, try starting with artists who reinterpret ancient sculptures or works by old masters. The tattooed David by Fabio Viale: there is not only irony in this, but also a certain beauty. However, the value of contemporary art does not lie in its aesthetics, but rather in its ideas and its novelty. How can we understand contemporary art and its value? Visit museums and galleries: Many contemporary art skeptics lack the experience of seeing art. Get out of your comfort zone, try to understand the unusual. Analyze your emotions based on what you see. Maintain your childlike curiosity, freshness and sharpness of perception. Read art literature, don't be afraid to ask questions of experts, artists and curators. You don't need to have sophisticated taste to understand contemporary artists, but it is important to understand the context and background of their work. Like playing a musical instrument or learning a language, understanding contemporary art takes time. And the best results are achieved through a combination of theoretical knowledge and constant visual practice. The most important thing is not to forget to enjoy the process.

Modern art in Germany has undergone rapid development since the year 2000. There are a large number of artists and art movements, such as street art or conceptual art, which are attracting more and more attention. Digital art and multidisciplinary art forms are also becoming increasingly popular. In addition, many new art institutions such as museums and galleries have established themselves. Popular galleries in Germany for contemporary art since 2000 include Galerie Sprüth Magers, Galerie Eigen + Art, Galerie Esther Schipper, König Galerie and Galerie Buchholz. There are a number of current trends in contemporary art in Germany, such as 1. digital and technology: more and more artists are using digital media and technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and interactive installations to create new forms of art. 2. environmental awareness: many artists are concerned with environmental issues and sustainability and are addressing climate change, resource scarcity and pollution in their artwork. 3. inclusion: art is increasingly being used as a tool of inclusion to involve marginalized groups in society and strengthen their voice. 4. performance: performance art and live performances are gaining in importance and offer new ways of telling stories and conveying emotions. 5. social criticism: Many artists use their art to draw attention to social grievances and to address and combat taboo topics such as racism, sexism and discrimination. Some of the most popular contemporary artists in Germany since 2000 are Neo Rauch, Gerhard Richter, Wolfgang Tillmans, Olafur Eliasson and Isa Genzken.

Exhibitions on Frida Kahlo are rare and therefore particularly popular. The artist, who has been famous worldwide since the 1980s, is revered for her unsparing self-portraits and long-suffering biography. The complex relationship with her husband Diego Rivera plays a central role in both the Mexican artist's life and work. Where will the most important Kahlo exhibitions take place in 2023? Only two new exhibitions have been announced so far. The Botanical Garden in Naples, Florida, is reconstructing Kahlo's Blue House and Garden. Under the title "Frida & Diego: Love & Revolution", the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide is showing Mexican Modernism with Kahlo and Rivera at the center. Kahlo, Sher-Gil, Stern: Modernist Identities in the Global South (until 22.2.2023) Johannesburg | JCAF: Kahlo, Sher-Gil, Stern Frida Kahlo, Amrita Sher-Gil and Irma Stern are presented together in an exhibition for the first time! The Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF) is showing an interesting dialog between the Mexican, the Indian from Austria-Hungary and the South African with German roots until February 22, 2023. As the daughters of immigrants, they share experiences of otherness and internationality. All three received their art education in Europe or oriented themselves towards its forms. And all three belong to the global South. In the JCAF, one significant self-portrait or portrait is accompanied by portrait photographs of each of the artists. They illustrate how Kahlo, Sher-Gil and Stern constructed their identities as twofold, as (indigenous) women and as pioneers of modernity. Frida and her garden (14.1-10.9.2023) Florida | Naples Botanic Garden Visitors to the botanical garden in Naples, Florida, are transported to Kahlo's garden in her home in Coyoacán, Mexico City, thanks to this exhibition. The centerpiece is a replica of the Casa Azul, also known as the Blue House. The reconstruction features huge animal sculptures decorated with Mexican folk art. Frida's creative oasis and her plants not only determined her life, but also influenced her art. Frida & Diego: Love & Revolution (24.6 -17.9.2023) Adelaide | Art Gallery of South Australia In 2023, the Art Gallery of South Australia will present the largest exhibition of Mexican Modernism ever seen in Australia. For the first time in almost 30 years, Frida Kahlo's artworks will be exhibited in Adelaide. In total, the exhibition comprises more than 150 works, including historical garments, paintings, photographs and works on paper. The works come from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. The Gelman couple were close friends of both artists and have amassed a considerable collection of Mexican modernist art. On display are well-known paintings by Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera as well as works by some of their most important Mexican contemporaries.

Over the past two years, the art market has been heavily influenced by the pandemic - be it the return to nature and figurative art or the influx of digital art and conversations about the metaverse or the reliance on the online world for art. 1. Building on the momentum of the physical art world With the return of the physical art world "after the pandemic", there will continue to be a series of fairs, auctions and exhibitions, and the calendar for this year's art season is full to bursting. While 2020 and 2021 saw an increase in online activity and cancelations of in-person events, 2022 saw the return of in-person events, proving that physical art cannot be completely replaced. In 2023, this momentum will continue with major international art fairs such as 1-54 in Marrakech, Art Basel, Frieze and others. 2. The demand for female artists will continue to grow Collectors see art by female artists as a promising investment. According to a BBC documentary, auction sales for post-war and contemporary female artists are increasing every year, with prices on the secondary market rising 29% faster than their male counterparts. 3. Consolidation of physical and digital art Following the boom and bust of digital art and NFTs, the art market continues to experiment with ways to incorporate digital art and blockchain into art market activities. One example of this was the launch of Christie's NFT platform during one of last year's biggest events: Art Basel. In 2023, we will continue to bring together the physical and the digital. The MENA region will continue to participate in this adaptation to new technologies to empower creatives. 4. Trend towards abstraction with a love of the figurative With the loss of human contact in the early days of COVID, the appreciation for figurative art has increased. This year we are likely to see more interest in artists experimenting with the figure through abstraction and movement. 5. Finding art that touches the soul Collecting art goes far beyond simply following trends or rooting for an artist. Collectors are also looking for a deep connection to a painting and a resonance with the subject they are looking at. 2023 is a year of more storytelling and intimate conversations with artists and the inspirations behind their work.