Paddle8, which launched in May, was conceived when former Phillips de
Pury marketing director Alexander Gilkes noticed that friends who had
the means to collect were frustrated by their lack of access to
galleries and fairs. He teamed with curator Hikari Yokoyama and
Delhi-born entrepreneur Aditya Julka to create a series of virtual group
exhibitions. Every five weeks they ask a tastemaker to guest-curate an
online show of about 20 works (like Scott Olson's
Untitled, above)
culled from various dealers, and then they post Web interviews and offer
virtual studio visits to help newbies navigate the art world. Its roster
of galleries includes both established names—Metro Pictures, Marianne
Boesky, White Cube—and such up-and-comers as Museum 52 and James
Fuentes.