Showcasing Saatchi's Virtual Reality

In seeking a name for the first American exhibit of artists from the Web site Saatchi Online, curator Ana Finel Honigman drew on personal experience: At a recent art opening in London, a New York art dealer had greeted Ms. Honigman's boyfriend, who was between jobs at the time, with an icy "and who are you?"

Ms. Honigman, Saatchi Online's London correspondent, felt the incident encapsulated the theme of the show, which is now open at Sara Tecchia Roma gallery: art world recognition and how it's achieved. "I thought it was a really good example of the type of art world, or general world, snobbery that might intimidate artists who are struggling to start out," she said. "I can see someone going to post images on Saatchi Online, just to avoid hearing that woman ask that question that way."

"And Who Are You? Work from Saatchi Online" features 11 emerging artists Ms. Honigman culled from thousands who display and sell their work on the wildly popular site. Founded in 2006 by British art dealer and collector Charles Saatchi, the site functions as a free, online gallery for any artist who desires to post his or her work. She asked each to contribute work exploring the nature of art world fame — an elusive entity the Web site may help more up-and-comers achieve.

"For the show, I was trying to find something that not only would showcase the artists, but would explain why this site makes sense," Ms. Honigman, who regularly writes about Saatchi Online artists for the Web site's daily magazine, said. She hopes the show — and the exposure it will bring the participating artists — as "a way to bypass nepotism and art world inbreeding, and kind of a cute way to skewer snobbery."

None of the show's participants are represented by New York dealers, and some, like the Williamsburg-based duo Fame Theory, have never participated in an art show before. Fame Theory is composed of filmmaker Seth Aylmer, 25, and Jose Serrano-Reyes, 28, an economist who formerly worked as a market forecaster at the Federal Reserve Bank. Together, they operate the celebrity-tracking Web site "Fame Game" and have orchestrated a number of high-profile art world hoaxes. In 2006, they generated a flurry of publicity by anonymously smuggling their piece "The Virgin Mary" — an enlarged image of model Kate Moss snorting cocaine — into the Whitney Biennial.

But they think of themselves more as entrepreneurs than artists, and they posted their work, including "The Virgin Mary," on Saatchi Online mostly out of curiosity. "I like to see what other people are doing," Mr. Aylmer said, adding that the Web site adheres to their self-described mission: to bring more capital to emerging artists, circumventing the "rich get richer phenomenon."

Fame Theory's posts attracted the attention of Ms. Honigman, who recognized "The Virgin Mary." She visited their studio, found their work to be "smart and irreverent," and put them in a photo spread she was doing for Sleek magazine.

At the "And Who Are You?" show, Fame Theory will exhibit a ticker that correlates the market value of an artist's work with party appearances and media mentions. The idea, explained Mr. Aylmer, is "pulling back the veil" on celebrity — finding ways for emerging artists to crack the code to the "celebrity-industrial complex."

"We can't leave publicity to the publicists," Mr. Reyes said.

But Saatchi Online has its pitfalls. The thousands of entries are tedious to comb through, and Ms. Honigman estimates that nearly three-quarters of the work on the site is "awful." And, for logistical reasons — one of the artists is based in Amsterdam, another in Paris — Ms. Honigman has never seen work by some of the artists in the show.

Gallerist Sara Tecchia said she, too, has corresponded with artists through Saatchi Online, though she hasn't yet signed anyone. While the site may bring exposure to new artists, she opined, it won't do much to threaten the existence of brick-and-mortar galleries, since seeing work in person is still key to the process. But Ms. Tecchia said she is excited about the philosophical aspects of Saatchi Online.

"I'm really excited about being affiliated with anything that's art for art's sake," she said. "The whole idea of allowing both artists and galleries to just get their vision out in the world without having to ask anybody's permission."

It's refreshing, she said, to come into contact with artists who post their work for free — not because they're necessarily expecting to gain fame and fortune. "They just want somebody to see it," she said.