A quick glance tells you that Vyner Street in Bethnal Green isn’t worth a
wander down. You can’t help but feel that this tucked-away East End stretch
is best avoided altogether. Its grubby warehouses and commercial units feel
secluded, seedy and alive with discreet activity. By the time you pass a
vintage gold sports car parked outside the Victory boozer, you’re steeling
yourself for a run-in with one of the Krays.
“That sports car probably belongs to a dealer,” notes Elinor Olisa, peering
from the window of the office she shares with her business partner, Isobel
Beauchamp. She means an art dealer. Vyner Street is, in fact, one of
Britain’s main drags when it comes to contemporary art, its drab buildings
housing dozens of studios and galleries. Olisa and Beauchamp moved into the
Empire Gallery last June, and in doing so gave a physical home to
DegreeArt.com, their online business that can make an art investor out of
anyone with a computer and may change the way we think about buying
paintings. The set-up is simple: a roster of about 150 recent art graduates,
including a core group of 25, produces original works for show at their cosy
synagogue-turned-shoe-factory-turned-gallery and sale through the website.
Imagine a quality-controlled MySpace that focuses on art and you are pretty
much there.
“Isobel and I shared a student house,” explains Olisa in the warm but precise
tone they share. “I was doing art history at Goldsmiths [College, in
London], and she was at the London College of Fashion. A lot of our
contemporaries were graduating from fine art courses and they’d give an
amazing show at the end of the year but then go straight into a bar job.
There was no focus on the business side of being an artist at all.”
They blame the universities for discouraging art students from selling their
work or staging their own shows during their studies. Professional artists,
they say, need a keen sense of self-promotion and business nous, regardless
of artistic talent. Holed up in a quiet pub, Olisa and Beauchamp shake their
heads and tut at each other’s tales of woe, such as friends selling
everything from their graduate shows for a few hundred quid. They launched
DegreeArt.com in 2003, when they were 21 and 22 respectively, and threw
themselves into recruiting young artists and hosting exhibitions on their
behalf, Olisa’s businessman father and Beauchamp’s art lecturer parents
perhaps lending a genetic predisposition to the endeavour.
They weren’t graciously received by the art world. “Oh, people could be quite
hostile,” Beauchamp smiles. “Very snooty. They thought we couldn’t possibly
know what we were talking about, but that just made us more confident.” The
thing that especially stung was the mistaken belief that the whole project
was some Sloaney plaything bankrolled by parental cash, a nonsense because
they set up the site with a £3,000 grant from the Prince’s Trust and until
2006, had full-time jobs, as a secretary and a PA. In 2005, they appeared on
Dragons’ Den only to stand accused of being “two silly little schoolgirls”
by one of the dragons, Rachel Elnaugh. Although they were on-screen “for
about ten seconds” and were ultimately turned down, the subsequent surge in
sales generated by the publicity vindicated their belief that there was an
untapped demand for affordable, original artwork. “A lot of people feel that
they’re outside that ‘artworld’ cliché, and that it isn’t accessible,” Olisa
says. “So you’ll drive down streets at night and see the same Ikea print
through people’s windows. You just need that little bit of confidence to buy
something that’s original.”
Visit DegreeArt.com and the buying process is strangely similar to any number
of other online purchases, from books to car insurance. Type in a few
criteria (subject matter, price range, size, artist) and see what pops up.
Sales now average at about £1,500, and nearly 2,000 pieces have been sold to
date, with clients ranging from young couples and students to wealthy
collectors and corporate buyers. “Our first sale was to a guy from New
York,” remembers Olisa. “It was probably the most exciting moment of our
lives. He bought four paintings off the website and got an absolute bargain…
they’re probably worth four times what he paid now.”
The prospect of buying a worthy investment is a big draw, with the pair’s
gallery attracting a lot of visitors from the City. The most they received
for a work was £5,950 – for a bronze sculpture by Emmanuel Okoro – and in
2007 their 20 bestselling artists earned £100,000 between them, with Olisa
and Beauchamp taking 40 per cent commission, lower than most private
galleries. Unsurprisingly, there’s no shortage of artists wanting to join
up-and-comers such as Kate Marshall and Andy Owen in the DegreeArt.com fold.
“We do get some desperate e-mails,” Beauchamp says. “‘I’m a single mother,
my children need to eat and I’ve done these paintings, could you sell them
for me?’”
DegreeArt.com’s policy of accepting only artists with university
qualifications isn’t just a filter for quality, but for commitment. When
Beauchamp and Olisa sniff around degree art shows, nothing makes their eyes
light up like a student already making plans for private shows. This means
they’re “savvy”, a glowing term they use to describe artists likely to
generate interest independently and work steadily, which ultimately means
their work will appreciate in value at a faster rate. “Someone told us we’re
like football scouts,” Olisa says. “We’ll flag people whom we might not
approach for another year, until we think they’re ready. Other galleries
might have an issue with us because we’re not here to control our artists.
Instead, we’re allowing them the freedom to get on with it, to make money
and be more successful a lot faster.”
They talk breezily of “conquering new markets”, but before they go global, do
they have any advice for first-time buyers? “Well, you have to feel that the
price you’re paying is fair,” Olisa explains. “Also, you can never be sure
about a piece until you’ve hung it on your wall, which is why we offer a
14-day money-back guarantee.”
You can’t help imagining the pair’s own houses are covered in the pick of
their artists’ work. Are they? “I only have two,” Beauchamp admits. “I’ve
just moved into a new flat, and I remember thinking that the next place I
move to, I want bare walls. Lovely bare white walls.”
The girls' guide to buying art
Check authenticity Any artwork you buy should come with a certificate
and be signed by the artist.
Get to know the artist Find out as much as possible about them and ask
galleries to keep you informed of their progress, including when new works
become available.
Set yourself a budget Decide how much you are willing to spend on a
particular piece and never pay more for something than you feel comfortable
with. Use the Arts Council’s Own Art scheme, which allows you to buy art up
to the value of £2,000 interest free over ten months
(www.artscouncil.org.uk/ownart/).
Join mailing lists Phone or send an e-mail to the galleries you like
and get on their mailing lists. You’ll be invited to openings and private
viewings and kept up to date with what their artists are doing.
Don’t be afraid to ask the artist questions Most artists relish
the chance to be able to explain their work. We believe that the enjoyment
of a piece of art improves if it has an interesting concept.
Go to degree shows We are always amazed by how poorly universities
publicise their shows and how few people realise they are open to the public.
Empire Gallery, 30 Vyner Street, London E2 (020-8980 0395, www.degreeart.com)
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