With a potentially limitless and worldwide audience, it is little wonder why businesses and professionals are wanting to make their presence known on the World Wide Web.

Intent on evolving and moving with the times, many art galleries are increasing their online activity and presence. Alongside a surge in activity of art galleries on the internet, gallery owners are also concerting efforts into creating a wider presence at art fairs.

According to Cinoa’s latest report, the physical location is not as important as it once was, with more and more galleries are turning to the web and fairs to do business. “We do much more business at the fairs than at the gallery,” said Dominique Levy of L&M gallery.

But does an increase of advertising and selling art online and at fairs diminish traditional aspects of selling and buying art, such as expert advice from dealers and the relationship between professionals and clients.

The Cinoa report concluded that major pieces of extremely expensive art are generally not sold online and that there are certain features and qualities of art galleries that websites and fairs cannot replace, namely the contact between artists, dealers and buyers.

This said, as we are now firmly entrenched in the digital era, gallery owners and artists alike are wise to be reaping the unique benefits an online presence creates.

We are seeing a growing number of online art galleries and arts communities emerging, designed to help artists showcase and sell their work.

Earlier this year, Artist Become was launched, an online community created and developed by the popular internet art gallery overstockArt.com. Both enterprises provide various resources and tools to help established and emerging artists increase their presence and hopefully sell more work. David Sasson, overstockArt.com’s president spoke of the essence behind Artist Become.

“With ArtistBe.com we are doing more than creating a place for up and coming artists to display original art online, we are creating a new social platform for artists and art lovers alike,” Mr Sasson commented.

While such virtual galleries will never replace the irreplaceable and intimate qualities of conventional art galleries, projecting their talents online is a sensible move for any artist to take.