Benjamin Genocchio, A Former Art Critic For The New York Times

    SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, September 05, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Benjamin Genocchio, a former art critic for the New York Times, is currently Editor-In-Chief of Incollect Magazine online, a new content platform for this growing web marketplace for art and design. As part of this new role as the Editor-In-Chief of the newly launched Incollect magazine, he oversees a new quarterly print product as well. Reinvention in any field is the need of time, and also one of the major ways to stay relevant. There is no shortage of a lot of new and healthy competition all around as well. Reinvention is a smart way to stay ahead of the curve. Benjamin Genocchio has been aware of this and has always been reinventing art journalism while doing it— in fact, his career speaks for itself.

Benjamin Genocchio has also devoted his time to giving back to the community through numerous initiatives and projects. Benjamin Genocchio has volunteered his time in various roles within the art community. In 2005 he was a juror for the ISE Cultural Foundation Summer Festival Art Student Exhibition in New York. From 2007 to 2008 he acted as a mentor for the CUE Art Foundation which is dedicated to providing opportunities for emerging and under-recognized artists. He was a juror for more than two dozen prizes and shows.

Wen Li, a freelance journalist based in New York with an interest in arts and culture spoke to Benjamin Genocchio in New York about his new role at Incollect.com and how he plans to bring his expertise in reinventing art journalism to the much broader fields of design and the world of interiors.

WL: What issues do you see affecting arts journalism right now?

Benjamin Genocchio: Wages, it is tough for the writers to make a living and so that is an area we need to support and change, to find a way to pay people properly for their work as writers. It is impossible for many of your writers to make a living and this is an area that I am working on right now and have been doing all my career to support and mentor the next generation of art writers. It is something I am going to try to roll out soon at Incollect as well for design writers.

WL: What is the state of the design market by the way?

Benjamin Genocchio: Crazy strong, everything is selling everywhere, never been bigger or better. We just need to get the word out with proper coverage and journalism. So many amazing makers are out there doing extraordinary things, more than at any other time in history and it is global and so there is more choice, more opportunity than ever before. I am actually really excited about this, really excited as the level of creativity is off the charts everywhere and new material research had just allowed ideas to go completely wild. Art, architecture, design, film, it all just blurs into one now— its basically about vision.

WL: That is encouraging news. That is one positive outcome over the past two years. What is the impact of Covid on art journalism and the design field in general?

Benjamin Genocchio. It changed obviously and the internet took on a far bigger role for sales such that now pretty much all sales have some digital component. Actually if also highlighted the importance of the idea of the 'home' for all of us as well as everyone was at home and so the market for art and design boomed. There was such a surge in demand-supply couldn't keep up. So the pandemic was hard for dealers to begin with but in the end was very positive.

WL: What's social media's impact on design and art journalism?

For sales it is now very very important—you can connect directly with potential consumers but there is also a lot of noise that takes up time and energy and so it's helpful but also a bit distracting at the same time- these so-called online communities are not vetted or sorted and so its unclear who you are in fact engaging with and ultimately if that is useful.

WL: What is the trend with digital art in relation to blockchain? How would Incollect respond to the market for NFTs?

Blockchain technology has been around for a while and is really just a secure, digital record for transactions of all kinds— you register the sale on the blockchain and it is then stored as a number that is referenced in future sales. It is transparent and can state conditions of all future iterations in the market such as the resale rights or royalties of some items. If works for digital art really well as it can be made/minted then bought sold traded right off the platform so has been revolutionary there as a market and for creativity. On a personal level, I don't need more screens in my life and I like the handmade— that is what Incollect sells, actual things, and so for the moment we aren't trading these digital baseball cards and anything else you can dream up as an NFT—anything at all.

Website - https://www.benjamingenocchio.net/

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