I think art is a quality things can have that only artists, creative people, can perceive and understand. Someone blind from birth can understand the physics of color but not the experience. Art is like that. The artless can produce technically impressive images/objects but they usually aren’t art. The artful can produce such that are art as well as non-realistic, abstract, etc. art. The artful can see art in the world around them.
Some “artists” take advantage of the artless to sell them non-art. Some buyers, artful or not, buy as an investment. They don’t care if it is art – only if it can be sold for more than they paid. I think the empty spot shown above is that, not art, and taking advantage.
I am reminded of this: Some realist painter (or photographer?) despised non-realistic or non-representational art. To express this he painted a square canvas a solid neutral gray color and named it modern art. Ironic that in doing so he created the very type of art he claimed wasn’t art. The gray canvas alone is not art. The title doesn’t make it art. The complete multimedia piece including the gray canvas, title, plus who created it and why is art.