The art world may not be the most data-informed industry, but there are regular reports on the art market, such as the UBS Art Basel Market Report, which surveys auction houses, galleries, and fairs; UBS collector surveys; and the Artnet Intelligence Report, which analyzes that company’s proprietary auction data. If you noticed that artists don’t seem to appear in those reports, well, New York artist mentor Paddy Johnson is one step ahead of you. Her inaugural New Visions Report, released Wednesday, surveyed 1,000 mid-career creators with the aim of assessing their careers the same way other businesses are evaluated.
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Johnson first became known as an arts writer and editor (she ran a popular blog, Art F City, from 2005–2017) and now runs Netvvrk, an app-based service that provides mentorship to over 800 artist clients and earned prominent mention in a 2024 New York Times article on the increasing market for artists’ coaches and mentors.
Johnson brought in two other big guns to assist: arts and culture journalist Julia Halperin provided editorial strategy, and Gray Market columnist Tim Schneider offered business analysis. (Halperin long ago recognized the industry’s under-reliance on data, and in 2018 launched the Burns Halperin Report with fellow journalist Charlotte Burns to study problems like the under-representation of women and Black artists in museum collections.)
The picture that emerges from Johnson’s report isn’t bright, with 75 percent of those surveyed earning $15,000 or less through their practice. All the same, 73 percent remain optimistic about their careers.
Success, Johnson reports, won’t solve the problems you think it might do away with. The majority of even the most successful artists, those with gallery representation and museum shows under their belt, struggle with debt, and the vast majority lack basic systems like estate plans.
Though 78 percent of those surveyed said they show their work at least twice a year, Johnson found that dissatisfaction is rife, as around 82 percent want more gallery and museum opportunities, and aren’t sure how to get there—even though 30 percent have enlisted the help of career coaches.
The majority of these artists rely on other income, with 57 percent holding down a full-time or part-time day job. The market contraction has hit artists pretty hard, with 45 percent earning less in 2025 than they did in 2024 even though 64 percent kept their prices flat, suggesting that they, not their collectors, are taking the hit of the market contraction and rising inflation.
The artists are faring forth in the world without so many of the supports that are common in other professions, such as accountants, estate planners, and marketing teams. Marketing is a special challenge, Johnson reports. “The industry punishes artists who do too much or too little,” she writes. Excessive self-promotion seems to devalue the work, she writes, “while silence can lead to obscurity.”
Schneider outlines five takeaways:
1. Most artists are ambitious but feel stuck and don’t know how to make progress.
2. Money and time are the greatest challenges for artists, whether they’ve achieved the dream of supporting themselves with their work or are still balancing a studio practice and a day job. Some 56 percent said that debt influences their decisions—and that number actually rises to 59 percent among the most established in the bunch.
3. Many feel themselves to be “near the breaking point” as an exceptionally challenging year wears on. Some 11 percent sold nothing in 2024 or 2025. Two-thirds sold works for $3,000 apiece or less, and 48 percent said their prices maxed out at just $1,500. Even as inflation drives their expenses up, 64 percent kept their prices steady.
4. Best business practices go by the wayside as artists struggle to build a career. Record-keeping, for 71 percent of artists, could be described with terms like “informal.” When consigning artworks, only 39 percent said they consider proper paperwork to be essential. Just over half (51 percent) had no estate plan at all, and another 40 percent have only a haphazard spreadsheet of their inventory.
5. Artists remain hopeful all the same, with some 73 percent of respondents ranking their career prospects 3 or higher on a scale of 0 to 5. Many are taking action on that hopeful attitude, with 86 percent setting professional goals, 79 percent socking away money in savings accounts, retirement funds, and/or emergency funds.
