Artists like Amit Banerjee who until now eked out a living by selling paintings, either by holding small-time exhibitions or creating replicas of famous works, have found a new outlet in the e-commerce space. Thanks to online players like PosterGully, Banerjee, who sold about 15-20 art pieces a month, is now selling close to 100 such works.

Like Banerjee, the large number of artists who have no means to market or monetise their work are getting a new lease of life on the digital platform, with its wide reach. Online art retailers are also looking to democratise art by selling art works priced anywhere between ₹130 and ₹6 lakh.

Bharat Sethi, founder, PosterGully, a curated marketplace for artists and designers, said, “There is a general perception that good quality art is unaffordable. Our aim is to give a platform both to artists and buyers.” The company has said it has about 850 contributing artists.

Growing demand

“We get requests from at least 20-25 artists every day who want a platform to monetise their art-work,” he said adding the company doesn’t own any inventory, and that it is purely a marketplace for art works.

Their rising popularity is also making it easier for such e-commerce players to raise funds. PosterGully recently raised ₹1 crore from a group of angel investors. Other like Touchtalent had previously raised about 7,00,000 from SAIF Partners and Flipkart’s founders among others. The company has about 3 lakh plus registered users.

“There is a latent demand for art not just from big cities but also satellite cities like Lucknow. From the artist’s point of view, the world is moving towards e-commerce, where artists themselves would want a relevant identity and presence,” said Kiran Wood, Founder, Full Picture Art. She said the company has signed up both established as well as entry-level artists and works on a commission model and sells art pieces ranging from ₹10,000 to over ₹6 lakh.

Woods quoting a Hiscox report, pointed that the online art market grew by 41 per cent last year and is now worth an estimated $2.64 billion.

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