A struggle to find a place where he could exhibit his work led Vredehoek professional photographer Reno Horn to opt for an art gallery in cyber space.
Mr Horn said he looked around Woodstock and the city centre and could not find a space that he liked for his own work.
The high rent and overheads of running an art gallery in Cape Town also contributed to the creation of the Art is Art digital gallery.
After some research on the concept, he spoke to people who’ve had experience with online galleries and who encouraged him to do it.
“I was sceptical at first, thinking to myself that art was a very personal thing and one would need to see the art up-close like art galleries and it became more apparent that there were more people who buy art online without ever seeing it in real life,” said Mr Horn, who trained in London as a hair and make-up artist and is a self-taught photographer.
The launch of the digital gallery and its first exhibition takes place later this month.
Among the artists featured are Barend Paul Barnard, from Zonnebloem, whose art focuses on simple human beauty using line and
colour. He also enjoys exploring new media and has developed an open level art workshop where drawing is used as a mindfulness exercise.
The work of Ané Dallas-Orr, from the CBD, will also be part of the opening exhibition.
Ané is inspired by natural beauty. Her focus is on simplistic line drawings; highly textural acrylic and ink abstracts.
Reno said he wanted to create a proudly South African platform with an international reach where he could not only show and sell his own art but also give other local artists the opportunity to do the same.
“There are so many talented artists locally and they don’t have a platform, financial support and expertise to showcase their art other than using social media. What’s worse, many take a huge commission of up to 50% of any artwork sold, creating a giant pothole in an already rocky road to success for any artist, let alone an emerging one. It was these factors that drove the creation of Art is Art,” he said.
He said the great thing about the digital gallery was that although it was a proudly South African website, it can be accessed glob-
ally.
“The internet has that amazing power of being reached by anyone anywhere at any time,” said Reno.
He said he believed that he’s not the first person to come up with this concept but what sets him apart was that he has approached new up and coming artists.
He said with the website he didn’t just want to concentrate on one genre, but he wanted to offer art lovers diversity.
“I’m a photographic artist and this is one of the most difficult art to sell because everyone with a camera thinks they are a photographer, so I’ve included artists
who are doing different things such as painting, sculpting etc,” he said.
On the name of the digital gallery, Reno said he believes art is art and it doesn’t matter which genre it is or what medium one used.
“It means different things to different people, one might look at something and say it’s not her taste and another one could come and say the opposite, who are we to decide what exactly constitutes as art, art is in the eye of the beholder,” he said.
Visit www.artisart.co.za for more information.