When the art market is in the throes of dramatic shifts, we often hear from dealers—less often do we hear from artists who are on the front lines of these fluctuations. While good news from fall auctions and fairs signals a market comeback, the fallout from a reported three-year contraction has been real.
The recent downturn—driven by higher interest rates, reduced discretionary spending, and a cooling of the speculative frenzy that defined the early 2020s—has acutely affected the mid-tier gallery sector. Since 2022, a regular cadence of gallery closures has rattled the infrastructure that sustains working artists. With fewer exhibitions, fewer sales, and delayed payments becoming more common, many artists have found their incomes suddenly precarious. And their experiences reflect as much about the state of today’s art-world economics as the enduring perils and resilience of the profession.
Following what artists described as years of “easy sales,” especially post-COVID, many have had to find other jobs to stay afloat. As the art market shifts from speculative highs to more considered buying, artists who saved for leaner times are staying the course, while others have also found financial lifelines elsewhere, including in more corporate-sponsored, public commissions, suggesting a trend in broader, commercial applications of typically rarefied artworks.
“While they will continue to create art, those who aren’t entrepreneurial or are primarily painters are considering starting new careers or getting regular jobs,” said Facundo Argañaraz, who runs 1599 fdT gallery in San Francisco.
Facundo Argañaraz at his gallery, 1599fdT in San Francisco, near a painting by Laura Rokas, titled Petite Douleur (2024)
A Rocky Road
Several dealers and artists did not want to comment on this story. Argañaraz has a hunch about why that might be—there is sometimes a stigma associated with changing careers or quitting. “Their decision to ‘pivot’ has been a tough one, and no one really wants to accept stepping away from art—no one ever does,” he said. “There aren’t many alternatives for artists facing gallery closures and a lack of representation,” he added.
Even the galleries that don’t shutter have been cutting costs, which, in some cases, has meant cutting artists. A New York-based artist, born in 1975, who wished to remain anonymous, was recently dropped by his international gallery, he said, alongside many others. “During the 2020–2022 boom years, they picked up many artists and over-expanded,” he observed. Another one of his galleries also recently shuttered and owes works and money to artists.
The artist said his paintings were last priced between $7,000 to $40,000, depending on scale, following a “moderate” 10 percent increase two to three times over five years. With those numbers, he said, before 2020, he earned about $50,000 annually on average pre-taxes, and over $300,000 per year pre-taxes between 2020 to 2022. Income sharply fell after that, and this year, he expects to make $35,000. Meanwhile, expenses like studio rent and materials have shot up.
This tracks with wider statistics. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, craft and fine artists earned a median pay of $56,260 per year in 2024. In Europe, however, that number is far less. A new study on the livelihood and earnings of visual artists in Germany, found that 90 percent of visual artists in Germany surveyed between February and April 2025 earn less than €20,000 ($23,275) from their art. Similarly, the U.K. Visual Artists’ Earnings and Contracts Report 2024 revealed the median annual income for artists in the U.K. was just £12,500 ($15,750) when data was collected, in the first quarter of 2024. This reflected a 40 percent drop since 2010, and in both Germany and the U.K., women reportedly earn less than their male counterparts.
“The mid-market is currently stagnant,” Argañaraz said. “For many, having an agent or dealer was essential … [Artists] aren’t known for their business skills.”
Adrianne Rubenstein in her studio. Portrait by Maria Stabio, photo courtesy of artist
Going Corporate
With the current U.S. government cutting back funding for the arts, it’s not likely it will be supporting any New Deal-style public artworks soon, making collaborations with private corporations particularly welcome.
New York-based artist Adrianne Rubenstein received a commission last year, as she sensed the market contracting. The artist was tapped by Bank of America to paint floating red, white, and blue flowers, inspired by one of her gestural, vibrant works, to be scanned and transformed into giant, modern-Monet-reminiscent wallpaper, which has been wrapped around the bank’s SoHo branch.
Was she concerned about being associated with a commercial project? “No, not at all,” Rubenstein said, adding that “in this particular moment it was a lifesaver, and it allowed me to spend a few months making art.” She doesn’t see a conflict between the commercial and the conceptual. “I have these random commercial applications for my work that I dream of someone offering me, which include Ikea or the Kleenex box,” she said. “I’m sure a lot of artists feel that way.”
Adrianne Rubenstein Floating Flowers (2025) wall covering installation at the Bank of America SoHo branch lobby space. Photo courtesy of Bank of America.
A few summers ago, artist Al Freeman felt a market downturn was imminent and brainstormed alternative avenues to “feel I had some more control over my immediate future,” she said. She posted a photo of an older drawing of a Hermès logo on Instagram. A fashion writer noticed. Eventually, Freeman ended up creating a display about mythological Hermès artisans discovering the prehistoric horse paintings in France’s famous Chauvet Cave, where they found inspiration for the brand’s founding designs.
“I was very lucky. In this case, I greased the wheels and I really went for it,” she said. It was just in time, too. The market began to show signs of instability around 2023. The commission has “been a really helpful thing to have right now, because I turned out to be right about the market slowdown,” added Freeman, though she has noticed the art economy picking up of late, and has sustained an active schedule of exhibitions while working towards several projects. Plus, Hermès gave her full creative freedom. “It was a really great experience,” she added.
Al Freeman Window Installation at Hermes Madison Avenue – Image: Skot Yobauje
Cost Cutting
For others, saving for a rainy day during the boom time, when high volumes of works were moving, has been a lifeline. “I think a common mistake that artists make when they’re doing well and selling their work is that they assume it will continue to be like that indefinitely,” said a California-based artist who wished to remain anonymous. “I always plan for the worst scenario. In recent years, I was able to sell pretty consistently, but I saved my money with the mindset that my success could end forever at any given moment. It definitely helped this last year when I had a solo show in Europe that sold almost nothing. I was completely safe financially because I had planned for it.”
Are there genres or formats that seem to be selling better under the current circumstances? The California artist also warned against assuming small works are an easy sell. “In my experience, especially recently, the shift in conversation has been away from thinking of young artists or mid-career artists as investments, and more about work that [collectors] love or connect with… If a collector could afford a large piece one year ago, they probably still can. The issue isn’t affordability and scale.”
Still, others noted it was harder to sell more experimental works, as well as some larger pieces. Like many I spoke to, Cologne-based artist Mirjam Baker could not know for certain what caused a downturn in her sales, but noticed it began after she knowingly took risks experimenting with a new style of drawings, following well-received exhibitions in Europe for her abstract color-field and paper-mâché animated films. However, the new works were insufficiently exhibited to the public, and by the summer of 2024, faced with slower sales following a relatively good previous market, “I just panicked. No money,” she said. She eventually took a temporary job as an oral history film and video editor, which has allowed her to save so she can plan to return to the studio full-time early next year.
Mirjam Baker speaking at the installation of her exhibition Dust (2021) at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien. Photo by Daniel Kothenschulte
Second Chances
Being a professional artist has never been a stable career, and apprehension about the possibility of having to give up one’s practice to pay bills hovers over many artists. For others, embarking on a second career has been a meaningful antidote to the fickleness of the art economy. “When people ask me why I became a therapist, it’s not just because of the money, it was also a spiritual calling, and about finding a way to feel nurtured and fulfilled in ways other than the art world,” said Los Angeles-based artist Max Maslansky. During the pandemic he sensed the art market was too “staccato” for him, and he went back to school to become a psychotherapist. While studying last year, his gallery, Five Car Garage, closed. Still in the early stages of his career as a therapist, Maslansky is now making art and “starting over completely.”
“The art world is a bad babysitter. It’s a neglectful parent, and as artists, we often look to the art world as this sort of feeding mother bird, but she doesn’t always come to the nest and give us the worm, and that can feel really humiliating and enraging sometimes,” Maslansky said. He’ll always identify as an artist, but “there is something else I needed in my life, other than that, to feel like I could sustain being an artist.”
Artist and psychotherapist Max Maslansky. Photo courtesy of the artist
Artists have long taken teaching jobs for financial stability. But today, many of those gigs are underpaid, part-time adjunct work, barely covering living costs in big cities. That said, it is fulfilling and can be enough to get by. “I love teaching, and I feel really lucky I was able to get a job as a part-time adjunct. It doesn’t make me a lot of money, but it still feels really aligned with my values,” said a 41-year-old Los Angeles-based artist, who wished to go unnamed. In 2023, her New York gallery closed, but she is working on a scheduled exhibition at a newer gallery for this winter. She remains uncertain, however, and wonders whether she may need a third job by 2027. “We’re now going on our third careers, trying to find a way to survive,” she said. The artist estimates her average earnings from art sales between 2010 and 2022 were between $30,000 and $130,000 annually. After her gallery shuttered, she made $30,000 in 2023, and in the past two years, she has made between $5,000 and $10,000 from art sales.
Silver Linings
Others agreed that this market downturn has served as a “natural” pause and provided time to reflect (for those who could afford it) following intense production schedules. “Now is a good time to be experimenting in the studio,” said artist Freeman, who is represented by 56 Henry. She makes textile sculptures depicting deflated or puffed everyday items. “In a lot of ways, I think it’s a great time for artists, because a lot of things can happen when things slow down a bit. People might choose to do things with less of a money-making mindset.”
Artists also said finding support from their artist networks has been an upside, and that there are new opportunities that come with change. “I still feel like I have that [art] community. It’s just not with a name and an address on it,” like the one her closed New York gallery once had, said the LA artist who teaches. “That community has now been diffused around the art world in a new pattern. And it creates new links and opportunities to show work in different cities and with different people that are really interesting… It wasn’t the end for anyone.”
