When Paris-based entrepreneur Vera Kempf describes Singulart, the online art market she co-founded with Brice Lecompte, she talks passionately about growing the number of female artists the company represents and expanding its global market.
“We’re on a mission to transform the art market,” says Kempf, who was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Europe in 2019. “That’s our purpose, to make it more inclusive, more transparent, but generally speaking, to open creativity to more people.”
Seeing a need for a digital solution to make the art market more accessible for both artists and collectors, Kempf and Lecompte founded Singulart in 2017. The company now has around 150 employees, and represents about 12,000 artists from all over the world.
Equity is a key part of Singulart’s mission. Notably, women make up 49% of the artists on the platform, while women represent just 2% of the overall art market, and only 11% of artwork acquired by top museums for their permanent collections is by women.
Singulart is working to change these statistics by setting their artists up with internal support through artists’ agents to help build their credibility and international profile. The result is brand partnerships, masterclasses, one-of-a-kind installations, and public and private collection placements.
“We only work with professional artists that have already gained a certain level of recognition [locally or regionally],” Kempf says. “We believe that they haven’t been discovered by a collector living on the opposite side of the planet just because they haven’t been shown to them.”
Singulart reaches about 2.2 million online visitors per month, with complimentary art advisory services available in 26 languages and artists hailing from regions, including North Africa, Asia, and Europe.
THE ITEMS
Items include a wide range of artworks. From painting, sculpture, and photography to drawings, textiles, home decor, and even novel digital innovations, Singulart strives to challenge the status quo on a single digital platform.
THE PRICE
Prices vary, reflecting the diverse nature of Singulart’s vast holdings. Landscape paintings start at about US$500 and go to over US$100,000. Pricing is similar for other mediums, with some sculptures topping out at US$300,000.
A digital portrait of Amy Winehouse on metal is US$2,780 while a pencil drawing of Bono is listed at US$15,000.
WHAT’S THE GOOD?
Since 2019, Singulart has continuously raised funds from its auctions for the NGO Médecins du Monde to provide medical care to vulnerable populations all over the world.
Having a positive impact and doing good is the core of the business.
“It was an alignment on values, what we wanted to create as a company, and what we wanted to bring to the world,” Kempf says.
Nearly half the artists represented by Singulart are women. “This is not the case for physical galleries,” Kempf says. “I believe it’s linked to the fact that we are an online platform, and the fact that one can find an emerging artist or a recognized artist that has work in museums.”
Artists from 130 different nationalities can be found on the website. “That’s something that’s very important to us, that being a platform enables us to remove barriers and bring more opportunities to different kinds of artists,” Kempf says.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Kempf is currently testing a new online platform in Europe that will amplify the works of amateur talents. “We believe that with the data we have, and the tools we have, we will also bring more diversity in the future, because Singulart will attract amateur artists to join our platform,” Kempf says.
“We want to work with a large variety of artists, but also be an incubator for these artists as well,” Kempf adds. “So we are working on that, too, to promote some of our artists to very nice institutions.”
Being a digital platform makes Singulart a new frontier in the art world. “We are between the traditional art market, as many people might perceive it, and the premium home decor sector,” Kempf says. “That’s because we’re convinced that the more you bring creativity to your home, the more personalized you make it, the better you feel.”
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