Thanks to Collectrium, a new "next-gen" mobile technology that recognizes works of art, collectors and collectors-to-be in the country's hotbed of technology will experience art as never before at the San Francisco Fine Art Fair (SFFAF), Thursday, May 19 to Sunday, May 22, 2011.
SFFAF, the top Bay Area art fair returns to Fort Mason in San Francisco for the second year following a decade-long absence with a renewed and innovative presence, where, for the first time ever, a visitor to the fair will be able to point her iPhone or iPad at any registered artwork and instantly receive extensive information on the artist and the piece; add the artwork to her "My Collection" favorites; share with friends via Facebook, Twitter, and email; and contact the gallery about the artwork.
Named one of 'America's Most Promising Start-ups' by Bloomberg BusinessWeek (4/15/11), the Collectrium mobile app has been warmly embraced by gallerists around the world since its launch in New York in March. With Collectrium, art fair visitors no longer have to make scribbled notes on postcards and flyers; the collector can leave the fair with a browsable list of her favorite artworks on her mobile device, complete with detailed information on each work, artist, exhibiting gallery, and personal notes - in effect creating her own personalized virtual gallery and catalogue of the fair. Collectrium also functions as a QR code scanner, so for sculpture, installation, moving image pieces, or any work with a QR code on the label, visitors can use Collectrium to scan the QR code to identify works of art.
"Collectrium enhances the fair experience for both the art collector and the gallerist. For the collector, it makes the art fair more social and provides a tool to manage works of art the collector may be interested in, including a way to contact the gallerist. For exhibitors, it simplifies the inventory process by making it easy to add works on the spot and keep track of work that's being sold using just your iPhone," said Karyn Mannix, Director of the SF Fine Art Fair.
"This is a social art management system, part of the next generation of tools for appreciating art," says Boris Pevzner, the former Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded Collectrium. "Our app makes the experience of visiting an art fair more interactive for the art lover-enhancing the on-site visit, while also allowing visitors to take the fair home with them."
In addition to using the Collectrium app to automatically identify artworks, visitors to the participating fairs will browse the entire art show catalogue on their mobile device; enter images, details and personal notes about works of art not already registered in the system; and view all the programming and scheduling information about the fairs. Pevzner concludes: "We've created a bridge between the physical and virtual art worlds by bringing the power of online technology to that live moment of discovery."
Furthermore, the visitors who manage their own private collections using Collectrium will have easy access to their artworks through the same mobile app, alongside the artworks exhibited at the art fairs.
About Collectrium
Founded by Boris Pevzner in 2009, Collectrium is a New York-based company providing innovative technology for discovering and displaying art on the web and mobile devices, including the revolutionary art identification and art similarity tools. Over time, the Collectrium team-which has extensive expertise in the fields of in technology, finance, and the contemporary arts-will offer collectors and galleries integrated services for art storage, appraisals, financing and other needs.
Pevzner's business ventures are built around a deep understanding of how different kinds of communities can be enhanced and transformed through innovative technology solutions. In 2003 he helped to conceive and develop xfire, a revolutionary social networking online service ($102M exit via a sale to Viacom). He has also co-founded Centrata, a pioneer in cloud computing for enterprise-class datacenters, and conceived and developed Lontra, a leader in service management of Information Technology (IT).
Pevzner is a frequent speaker at IT industry conferences, and he often serves as an advisor to senior technology executives of Fortune 500 companies on issues of IT management and security. Pevzner holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was born in St. Petersburg, only a stone's throw away from The Hermitage.
The Fairs
The San Francisco Fine Art Fair (SFFAF) returns in 2011 as one of the highlights in the Bay Area for modern and contemporary art. This year SFFAF presents roughly 5,000 works of art from more than 60 galleries assembled under one roof in the 50,000 sq. ft Festival Pavilon, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco. In 2010, a rousing 15,000 art enthusiasts attended the fair after a decade long absence.
Collectrium technology is powering the art fairs around the globe, including the upcoming Olympia London International Fine Arts Fair (June 10-12), VOLTA7 (June 13-19), SCOPE Basel (June 14-19), Art Hamptons (July 7-10), Art Aspen (August 6-8), and the Houston Fine Art Fair (September 15-18, 2011).
General Information
To learn more about Collectrium, visit www.collectrium.com.
To download the free Collectrium app on iPhone and iPad, go to http://collectrium.com/iphone or at the Apple App Store.
San Francisco Fine Art Fair iPhone app, powered by Collectrium, is also available from the Apple App Store.
