There is a kind of collector that has emerged, in the last year, that does not behave the way collectors are supposed to behave. They do not flip. They do not appraise. They do not, very often, frame the work — though they will tell you exactly which wall it would go on if they ever got around to it.
What they do is talk about the work, to each other, in long group threads that read more like book clubs than markets. They write to the artists. They show up at openings. They bring their parents. They bring their kids.
We do not have a clean name for this yet. "Patrons" is closest, though it sounds older than it should. Whatever they are, they are the reason the studio still works.
