What to Expect From the Art World in 2014

10 things we anticipate from the art world for the new year.

This year, the line between art and celebrity was further blurred as musicians like Lady Gaga, Jay Z, Pharrell, and Madonna collaborated with famous artists for buzzed-about pieces. Marina Abramovic, Robert Wilson, Daniel Arsham, and other artists moved further into the spotlight thanks to their projects with their famous friends. Many of these projects gained viral momentum online, where social media platforms became a new way to distribute and host art work. In the coming year, many of these trends will persist, with the Internet playing a greater role in creating and disseminating art and bolstering the identities of artists. From Jeff Koons' retrospective at the Whitney Museum, to art fairs in Hong Kong and New York, this is What to Expect From the Art World in 2014.

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Marina Abramovic will remain in the spotlight, likely with more weird publicity stunts.

This year Marina Abramovic redefined the title "celebrity artist" with a never ending night in the limelight. The grandmother of performance art went viral when she held Jay Z in a swaying trance for his "Picasso Baby" performance at Pace Gallery. She then convinced Lady Gaga to walk around in the woods in her birthday suit to practice the Abramovic Method. Her wildly successful Kickstarter to fund the Marina Abramovic Institute included a promise of a hug and a video of her telling a (failed, but charming) light bulb joke.

The MAI, a museum dedicated to performance art, is scheduled to open in 2015. Since Abramovic is still raising money for her institute, we expect that she will continue to act out for the spotlight, generating buzz for the project. Maybe her star antics are just another kind of performance art? Either way, we expect her to keep charting online in 2014.

So will Jeff Koons, as his Whitney retrospective draws closer.

Besides Queen Marina, the other most buzzed-about artist this year was Jeff Koons. More businessman than artist in appearance, Koons linked up with big names for impossible to ignore collaborations in 2013. Such brand collabs (rare for Koons) resulted in a BMW Art Car and a bottle for Dom Perignon. Koons also designed Lady Gaga's album cover for ARTPOP, a work that was more successful than the album itself, as well as sculptures for her artRave party.

Next summer the Whitney Museum will host the first ever retrospective on Koons, so we haven't seen the last of the artist's metallic balloons. This is the final show the Whitney will have in their uptown location, an event that will be sure to include all the bells and whistles. As he gears up for the most important show of his career thus far, Koons will certainly remain in the forefront of the art world consciousness come 2014. If his record-breaking sale of Balloon Dog (Orange) for $58.4 million at Christie's last month, means anyting, it means that Koons and his shiny sculptures aren't going anywhere.

Other celebrities will continue collaborations with big name artists.

And maybe a celebrity will open a gallery.

Blockbuster art "experiences" will continue to bring in big crowds.

The role of the artist will evolve into digital age demigods.

Arts institutions will continue to grow their online presences.

And digital artists will become more popular.

Digital artists are beginning to garner more and more attention from the art world. At Paddles ON! artists like Rafaël Rozendall and Casey Reas put their art up for the auction block. During the NADA and UNTITLED. art fairs at Art Basel Miami Beach, galleries like JT and Bitforms had digital art fly off their walls. William Kentridge also displayed digital art in Miami at the main fair, showing that digital art is not only entering the mainstream but is also selling.

This year, the Turner Prize went to a video artist, Laure Prouvost, helping to legitimize on-screen art. Besides the sales, Banksy's New York residency showed that even artists who aren't digital artist are using the online world to disseminate their works. With hackers being called the new street artists, art made from pixels will only increase in popularity.

Art fairs will see growing numbers.

Galleries raked in astronomical numbers this year, and the soaring prices don't seem to be deflating. Art Basel Miami Beach reported a record attendance and sold $3 billion in paintings, sculptures, and photographs, according to Reuters. And auctions didn't do too badly either.

Sotheby's raked in the biggest numbers ever, and Christie's sold the most expensive artwork in history, a Francis Bacon tryptich for $142.4 million. If the David Zwirner article in The New Yorker signifies anything, it's that the rich are getting richer. When Art Basel Hong Kong opens in May, attracting wealthy Asian collectors, we only expect to see more sales. While New York's fairs don't have the same party atmosphere as Miami, this doesn't mean there will be a lack of visitors descending on New York Frieze and Armory week.

Unless the art market bubble that everyone is so scared of drastically explodes.

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