While a number of sites let users browse through and buy art from iconic and emerging artists, one in particular is developing a new, niche relationship between the Internet and the art world. Signaling a transition from the traditional gallery space to a virtual one, the online-only gallery P-Squared focuses on contemporary work from up-and-coming Latino artists.
With an official launch in April, P-Squared took off before Amazon unveiled its art marketplace in August. Other sites such as Artsy and Curiator let users browse or buy works from different artists but also many eras. P-Squared focuses specifically on budding artists creating work today, artists who might not get the same attention as well-established icons.
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Some of the pieces on Amazon and Artsy can cost thousands of dollars while the prints offered on P-Squared fall more in the double and triple digits. The online gallery allows casual Internet browsers to stumble upon artists they do not know and perhaps buy a piece to hang in their home. It's the experience of visiting a physical gallery, but it can now take place virtually anywhere.
Patricia Prevatt started P-Squared after meeting a number of artists in Latin America who struggled to gain exposure in the U.S. She first thought about starting a blog but then created the site, which showcases and sells work by artists in Latin America and Latinos in the U.S. The Internet became a tool for creating connections between collectors and Latino artists in the U.S. that might not meet otherwise.
Prevatt is now setting up initiatives to help other young artists through a program called Art Alliance, which helps foster artists in a different way. Through it, P-Squared takes a portion of its sales to buy art materials for schools and community art organizations.
The online gallery only takes work from artists that want to make art for a living — Prevatt likes to keep the site "small and boutique." The challenge was to create a website that would recreate the unique feeling of walking into a physical gallery. Yet, on the site, visitors can look closely at the work and share it via social media.
"We wanted to take, as much as we could, the experience of visiting a gallery and put it on the site. So as we think about the brick and mortar [gallery], we usually think of white walls, a space that is really lit and clean to showcase the work, so we were trying to copy that online by making the site clean and very straightforward," said Prevatt.
The artists featured work in a variety of styles, such as Argentinian artist Diego Cirulli's striking, almost photo-realistic "Cama 1 (Bed 1)" (pictured above).
P-Squared doesn't sell the original pieces featured on its site, instead it offers prints at different sizes and prices which ship in the U.S. and internationally. A "museum quality" print of P-Squared artist Leslie Jiménez's piece "I Ain't No Goldfish" costs between $60 to $275 depending on the size of the print. The Dominican artist, currently living in New York, graduated from Parsons School of Design. The site allows viewers to specifically visit her page — a virtual solo show, in a way, without a closing date.
Jiménez sees the online gallery as shaping a new relationship between the artist and her work.
"I like the idea that I have my original pieces in my studio," said Jiménez. "And I'm pretty sure other artists would like to keep their work — and others maybe not — but ... their work is reaching a market while the object is in their studio so, at the same time, they have control over those reproductions."
Argentinian artist Graciela Genovés (whose work "Rojos" is pictured at the top of this post) is represented by a gallery in Buenos Aires that contacted P-Squared in order to help the artist get more exposure in the U.S.
P-Squared gallery requires artists to follow the standard gallery process — but it bridges considerable distances. Jiménez sent in her portfolio and then received an invitation to join the site from Prevatt, who is based in Florida. The web, which made that exchange easier and faster, has now allowed Jiménez (whose self portrait is pictured below) to show her work in a space she can share with anyone around the world.
In Prevatt's view, the site supports artists "who have very little opportunity in the physical gallery art world" to thrive. With many artists submitting to the same, well-known group of brick-and-mortar galleries in their respective cities, competition is fierce. With little widespread fame, up-and-coming artists struggle to gain a gallery's approval. That problem gets harder for Latino artists who find very few shows dedicated to Latino art and even fewer spaces. Online galleries could change that.
"Of course, every artist thinks about their work being showcased in a physical gallery ... but, at the same time, you see so many good artworks featured online and ... it's so easy for everybody around the world to see what's going on that I think it's a resource — especially for up-and-coming artists," Jiménez said.
Lead image: Graciela Genovés, P-Squared Gallery
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