Arts & Entertainment

Gallery Eyes Low-Budget Art Lovers

Selling high-end art at relatively low-end prices is the strategy behind Carré d’artistes, a French firm that opened its first North American gallery in the West Village this month.

“The concept is very welcomed by the artists, by the people, because, usually, traditional art galleries have an incredible price or target a very small part of the population,” said Rodolphe Lecomte, who is originally from Paris and owns Carre d’artistes’ New York City franchise.

“But,” he added, “we want people like you, like me, common people that don’t have … $30,000 to spend. They want to buy an artwork, an original artwork. So, they can do that in our galleries,” he said.

Since its 2001 launch, Carré d’artistes–French for “Square of Artists”–has been peddling original works by established and emerging artists at set prices at what, so far, are 18 locations on three continents. The works come in one of four different sizes: 4 inch-by-4 inch pieces cost $105; 6 inch-by-6 inch ones are $175; 8 inch-by-8 inch works go for $295; and 12 inch-by-12 inch works for $520.

The Greenwich Village gallery showcases 25 different artists creating works in various media. A painted clownfish has bulging, fake eyeballs pasted on. There are three-dimensional diamonds and other shapes formed out of paper. Portraiture depicts people’s bodies but presents their faces as one big blur.

Lecomte said his gallery offers art as fine as any at, for example, London’s Saatchi Gallery, where original creations can cost thousands of dollars. In fact, Paris-based artist Waymond Anthony Grier, who goes only by “WAG,” has had his art featured both by Saatchi Gallery and Carré d’artistes.

Currently, the international group of Carré d’artistes galleries works with more than 500 artists whose pieces are rotated every six to eight months among galleries in countries including Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Russia and Japan.

Emelie Elliott, a recent visitor at the Manhattan location, said she has bought art from local artists directly, instead of galleries that tend to exhibit “a lot of work that is out of my price range.”

“I like,” Elliott said, during her first trip to Carré d’artistes, “that there’s the potential for good quality at a reasonably good price [here].”

Many art buyers are now looking for cheaper art that appeals to them, said Deborah Kleman, an art buyer for Manhattan Art & Antiques Center.

“With the recession, the mid-range art market kind of disappeared,” said Kleman, while looking at a piece by Raphaëlle Lennoz that was on display at Carré d’artistes. “I definitely think that there’s a market for [cheaper art] and I think it’s re-emerging as the economy is coming back. I think people in general are definitely much more interested in art today than the average person used to be,” she said.

Gallery salesperson Alex Simko said she believes artists who are affiliated with Carré d’artistes like “this format because [they like] the idea of getting … art to people who wouldn’t normally be able to afford it,” he said.

“It’s good for both the artists and the collectors,” Simko said, “because the artists have a more steady income and the collectors are able to start a collection of art,” he said.

Artists wanting to exhibit through Carré d’Artistes must first submit their work to a committee of critics, collectors and staff members that meets monthly in Aix-en-Provence, France, Simko said. As they review artists’ portfolios, committee members search for a “strong style that’s underlying in the body of the work.”