During these last three months art galleries have been tripping over themselves to create virtual viewing rooms and walkthroughs, and to join collective ventures in online selling such as GALLERYPLATFORM.LA and FAIR (from New Art Dealers Alliance or NADA). Meanwhile, Saatchi Art has already been an online marketplace for art since 2010. Although you won’t find a Banksy or Yayoi Kusama among the offerings, you will find work from some 60,000 artists worldwide through the website www.saatchiart.com. On offer are original paintings, drawings, photography and sculpture, with some works available as less expensive prints. For those who may want advisory services—whether interior decorators, businesses or individual collectors—they also offer free one-to-one counseling.

A recent ramble through their website shows a nice range of work, some more professionally executed than others, all with prices clearly marked. In early June the home page featured a colorful painting of a beach scene with people sunbathing, jumping in the waves, and generally lolling about in a manner we long for but have so far been prohibited from doing. (As of writing, our beaches are “open” but only if we keep moving.) The artist is Yuanyuan Liu, born in China and now based in Sweden.

Curator Rebecca Wilson

This week’s special selection has been assembled by Saatchi Art’s Chief Curator Rebecca Wilson. Most of the work is 2D and realistic, including portraits, landscapes and still-lifes, with some geometric or abstraction thrown in. The least expensive piece was a small framed sculpture by Swapna Namboodiri from Qatar for $170; the most expensive was a very large (80” tall) abstract painting by Christo Kasabov from Canada, for $20,750. Taxes and shipping are additional. Kasabov’s piece was one of only two works priced above $10,000 in this selection, so most of the artwork is in the “reasonable” range.

If you’re interested in an artist, you can go to his or her profile page, where you can find more work and also an artist’s statement, along with educational background and a list of previous shows. You can magnify each work, “like” them, and, of course, buy them by putting them in a shopping cart. It’s all quite straightforward and navigable.

Chief Curator Rebecca Wilson in action

Wilson, who is also vice president of the Art Advisory department, leads a staff of eight. Previously, she had been director at the Saatchi Gallery in London. In 2006 she helped launch Saatchi Online—which evolved into Saatchi Art and completely separated from the gallery—eventually moving to Los Angeles to assume her current role. I had a chance to catch up with her via phone before the COVID-19 shutdown and later via email. Indeed, interest picked up during the shutdown, she says, when people are homebound and galleries are closed. One of her art selections for the week I examined was Covid-19 (2020), a medium-sized painting by Yuko Nogami Taylor which showed— yes—an enlarged coronavirus with its “corona” sticking out around it.

“We have a team of eight curators,” said Wilson. “We’re constantly looking for artists that we’re interested in representing and helping to give them more opportunities. So we’re looking in spaces that you would expect, like Instagram, exhibitions, fairs, magazines; we go to the MFA shows.” They also have a sister organization, The Other Art Fair, where real-life artists sell their own work in 12 different cities. I have attended two of its iterations in Los Angeles, once downtown and another time at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, and was impressed with its energy and the quality of the work for relatively affordable prices. (Yes, I purchased a small painting by an LA artist at the first one. And no, I did not get a discount.) Alas, this year’s Los Angeles fair was cancelled since it was scheduled during Q Time.

Swapna Namboodiri, Zoanthids Colony-9

The curators have a dual focus, says Wilson, “One is helping artists and finding new artists but also… to find the people who want to buy their work. The new collectors are not so familiar with the art world, and we want to make it seem an accessible and friendly way to discover new artists.” They also work on hospitality projects. Those are bigger and more complicated projects, such as a new art hotel with a need for 400 pieces of art, and a big hospital in Chicago; both projects Wilson herself is working on.

What are they looking for in the featured artists? “We’re trying to find a very broad range of artists who are doing interesting work, whatever it happens to be,” she says. “I think we’re looking for something that you haven’t quite seen before.” Such as a signature style, as well as “a rich pool of ideas,” she adds. “I’m interested in trying to find the artists that I feel have the stamina and the ideas, as well as the technical abilities to execute their ideas. That means that they will still be making their work in five, 10 years time, or beyond.”

Yuko Nogami Taylor, COVID-19, 2020

For artists the commissions are somewhat better than brick-and-mortar galleries—they get 65%, whereas they generally get 50–60% at traditional galleries. However, contributing artists have to provide proper packaging for the work. The company takes care of shipping, which is billed to the buyer.

Recently, I chatted with one artist who joined Saatchi Art when she started her fine arts career about four years ago— Bridgette Duran, a Los Angeles painter. “I sold a couple pieces, and I was excited and I was just starting,” she says. “In 2019, I was in The Other Art Fair. There were people who flew in from Spain and South Korea, I was watching their [Saatchi Art’s] Instagram, and they were promoting the same 10 or 15 artists. There’s definitely a hierarchy, and I think it’s basically who’s continuously selling.”

Bridgette Duran, Flora

Though the company does take care of the shipping, Duran reminds artists who might be interested in selling through Saatchi Art that they have to pay for packaging. “If you’re doing large-scale painting, the costs really go up,” she says. “Smaller works move the best.” She also points out that sometimes the website has a sale, like the current summer sale, and then your work has to be discounted.

While Saatchi Art may not be the end goal for the artist, says Duran, who now sells on her own website (bridgetteduran.com) and through Instagram, “It is a good place to start.”