Kelvin Browne
Gallery goes digital
ART FOR RENT/ A new high-tech showcase offers one-stop-shopping for set decorators and designers.
THERE’S a new kind of gallery on the Toronto art scene. Archive Inc., at the still-edgy west end of the trendy Queen Street retail strip, is set up to rent as many works as it sells. The idea is that Toronto’s flourishing television and film industries – and anyone else with a short-term need for art- will find a plentiful choice assembled at Archive, and won’t have to run all over town to find what they want.
The heart of the gallery is its digital library. Currently cataloguing 4,000 artworks by more than 200 Canadian artists, it’s growing rapidly toward a goal of 10,000 pieces. The mix includes established artists like John Massey, emerging artists and students.
Clients can browse the Archive database and enter their requirements. Price? Size? Medium? On the screen, in full colour, appear works that fit the criteria. When the right image is found, the actual artwork can be brought in for viewing before the rental, or purchase, goes through. (A one-week rental costs 20 per cent of the purchase price, with a sliding scale- up to 35 per cent- for longer-term rentals.)
Co-owner Patricia Christie, a production designer and art director, says that her experience in the movie industry demonstrated the need for a service that could efficiently supply artworks for set decoration.
"Film production moves fast. There was no database that allowed set designers to quickly survey what was available in Toronto, either as completed art pieces or as sources for commissioned items," she said. "Equally important, there was no source of art that also provided prearranged contracts with artists that resolved potentially volatile issues such as copyright and insurance.
Her partner, architect Johnson Chou, identified a second market among designers and decorators.
"No designer has the time to go to all the shows. It’s impossible to remember all the pieces you’ve seen or whether they’re the right size or price for the project you’re working on," he said.
And both partners’ experience of visiting art galleries suggested that even the general public might be interested in their services. "Too many people are intimidated by a typical art gallery, or frustrated that they can’t find art that matches their specifications," Chou said.
"This applies to companies that collect or rent art as well," Christie added. "It can be too complicated to locate the appropriate pieces, so companies give up trying."
Archive is not the first Toronto gallery to offer high-tech database services. The Tatar Alexander Photogallery, for instance, also offers a digital archive of its artists’ works. But Archive is different because of the range of art it makes available. And unlike most other galleries, Archive doesn’t only offer works by a handful of artists from an exclusive "stable." Instead, their database includes artists represented by other galleries as well as those without any dealer representation at all. When Archive makes sales or rentals from their database, they share the commission with the artists and their regular dealers.
According to Archive, its rental business has few competitors. Traditionally, trying to find art to use in film and TV has been a time-consuming, haphazard and often fruitless task. Set decorators can go to prop houses for their needs, but the range of artworks on offer is always limited and often quirky. Or they can do the rounds of the sales galleries on the unlikely chance of finding the co-operative dealer with just the right piece in stock. And even the established art-rental agencies run by public galleries, such as the one at the Art Gallery of Ontario, are not set up to serve the entertainment industry. They cater to long-term corporate renters, so that a set decorator wanting works from them often has to go through a complex approval process. And they tend to work on a warehouse-inventory system – if it’s there, you can rent it, but getting photos or information on works not in stock can be hit or miss. "The number of artists that the AGO and others stock is, relative to our database, very limited," Christie said.