The Art Market Is Changing - And Kulturnest Is Right Where It Belongs
They say the art world is crashing. That auctions are emptying, galleries are struggling, and the million-dollar pieces aren’t moving like they used to. But for us at Kulturnest, it doesn’t feel like a collapse. It feels like a shift. One we’ve been sensing and living long before it showed up in the headlines.
Something is happening across the board. The obsession with blue-chip names and glossy fairs is giving way to something quieter, more personal. People are turning to art not because it’s prestigious, but because it’s human. Because they want to feel something. Because they want to connect. And they’re looking in new places.
Small dealers, local initiatives, online platforms run by actual people, not just institutions. Artworks under $5,000 on a global level are thriving -- and in Lebanon, even under $1,000. First-time collectors are making thoughtful choices. Intimacy is starting to matter more than spectacle. It’s a strange kind of decentralisation, and it feels honest.
This is the space we have been working in since the very beginning. Not because it’s trendy. But because it’s what feels right. At Kulturnest, we never wanted to be a traditional gallery. We don’t have marble floors or a white cube in a capital city. We are a hybrid semi-nomadic platform that shifts, adapts, and grows depending on the artists we meet and collaborate with, the local geopolitics, the stories that emerge, and the connections with diverse audiences. We are not interested in elitism. We are interested in exchange, in what makes sense amid chaos, war, and instability; and in democratizing the arts.
Most of the artists we work with aren’t trying to make “investment pieces.” They are trying to survive, or to express something that doesn’t have words yet. Or to reimagine the everyday with a little more colour, a little more care. And most of the people who come to our shows or events don’t come looking for trophies. They come because something resonates. Because they want to take home a piece of it, whatever “it” is.
We have always believed - at least since the 1990s - that meaningful art can be affordable. That value isn’t measured in currency. That a piece made in a small studio in Beirut can matter just as much as something sold in New York or Basel. Maybe more.
This shift in the global art market, the so-called “crash,” doesn’t scare us. It feels like the world (and especially the new generations) is catching up to what many of us have already been doing: creating and supporting art that is rooted in places, in stories, in lived experiences. Not in trends.
Lebanon is not an easy place to make art. It's even a highly challenging place. But maybe that’s why the art made here hits differently. There’s no room for fluff - except for a few 'pockets' here and there. There is no guaranteed outcome, from visibility to sales. And yet, people keep creating. We have seen it over and over again. In homes, on rooftops, in repurposed gardens, and in unfinished houses. Nothing about this is polished. But it’s real.
So no, we are not worried. We are paying attention. And we are grateful to be part of something that feels less like an industry and more like a movement.
Dr. Pamela Chrabieh
Kulturnest co-founder & CEO
