When art’s just a click away…

WITH A SHARPER focus on culture in recent times and ever-more ludicrous property prices, it was only a matter of time before Dubai welcomed its first online-only art gallery.

Emorarts.com boasts around 900 original pieces of art spread over four categories – fine, decorative, locally sourced and aboriginal.

While prospective buyers cannot see their desired artwork in the flesh, the site offers buyers a next-day courier service and a money-back guarantee. The website launched officially last week at More Café, Al Garhoud.

The Emorarts story focuses on a tale of two Ians. British IT worker Ian Mercer had designed a series of successful commercial websites for other people before striking the idea of selling art via the internet.

“Everyone said ‘no no no – how can you do that? People want to touch art, they want to feel it,’” Ian said. “I thought that if you gave people their money back if they didn’t like the piece – taking all the risk out of buying it – then maybe they would. People buy everything else on the internet.”

After setting up a website in the UK and acquiring roughly 150 paintings, AGD.com opened for business in 2004 – selling out of its original stock in just two months.

After a chance visit to Dubai, where he had lived in the early 1990s, Ian had another brainwave.

“I thought there must be a lot of white walls here that needed filling,” he said. “I did some research and realised there was a huge gap in the market. At the time, I worked out there were 20,000 people in the UK for every art gallery. In the UAE there were 97,000 people for every gallery, plus a lot of disposable incomes.”

After selling his share in AGD.com, he soon partnered up with Ian Mulville, a Dubai veteran who helped the fledgling business get up and running.

Ian Mulville is now based in Australia, hence the inclusion of aboriginal art on the website. He explained that aboriginal art was not readily available in the Middle East, adding that he hoped people here would embrace “a vital part of the world’s oldest continuous cultural tradition.”

The duo also joined forces with Dana Yarger, a specialist in fine, collectible and investment art for more than three decades. Dana, who is based in California, will serve as curator for the site’s fine art section – bringing in pieces from all over the world.

Finally, Emorarts expanded to include a section featuring works sourced locally. This came about after regional artists had inundated the site, looking to display their works without the prohibitive costs.

“Emerging artists have a tough time trying to break into the market,” said Ian Mercer, “often with a huge amount of talent but with limited funds to show their work in a gallery or exhibition. We thought it would be a great way to show our support for local talent.”

Together, the two Ians have ensured their website displays more artworks than any physical ‘brick and mortar’ gallery in Dubai, and that paintings are cheaper as they are individually boxed in a warehouse rather than displayed in a pricey gallery.

The company now deals with more than 100 artists in total, selling pieces from anywhere between 500 dirhams and 400,000 dirhams.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Visit www.emorarts.com to see the selection of artwork on offer.

adam@khaleejtimes.com