Many across the world are waiting for their offices to open up so they can return back to one. But one Canary Wharf based art dealers, ME Art, have made the decision to abandon its immediate plans to open a physical art gallery in Canary Wharf all-together to focus on building and growing digitally.
The boutique dealers, which have a niche in selling unique and exceptional investment-grade artwork of British contemporary, post-war and street artists, like William Gear, Alan Davie and Endless. They made the bold call to go virtual in light of Covid 19, upon realising the lockdown has had little impact on sales, despite the inability to physically see clients and display artwork to them in-person.
Me Art launched with a gallery in 2017 located in Beckenham, South East of England. Given the majority of their client base were located in London, they decided in late 2018 to close the gallery and relocate to an office in Canary Wharf. The strategy was always to open a physical gallery in the city in 2020, whereby prospective and existing clients could come and view artworks and meet with their dealers in person. However, the lockdown has made them aware that this is no longer necessary right away.
Talking about the move, Joseph Lewis, the owner and Director of Me Art, said: “A decade ago the concept of a digital-only art dealership would not be technologically feasible nor accepted by our clients and prospects. However, with the emergence of high quality video conferencing as well as technologies such as augmented reality, we feel incredibly confident that we can replicate the standards and experience people get visiting a physical gallery, online. This is the game-changer.”
He later added: The impact of Coronavirus on businesses is going to be felt for a long time across industries, even once lockdown has been lifted. The good news for us is that art buyers will now be more open to digital experiences, buying and viewing perspective art purchases online – from the comfort of their own sofa, using their mobile phone, or even augmented reality goggles!”
Me Art plans to start building a range of virtual services from the second half of this year, such as a virtual and fully configurable gallery.
In the meantime, you can see their art collection at meartgallery.co.uk