We’re aware that your selfies might be pretty #flawless but they’re hardly art now, are they? In spite of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram often being rife with images of all things aesthetic, there does seem to be a void in the market for an app that can give you access to some real art. And no, your mother’s Pinterest board doesn’t count.
A man who has similarly seen this potential for an accessible art-buyers app is Shohidul Ahad Choudhury, a Dubai-based art collector – and former investment banker for companies such as Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs – whose own personal collection features the work of high-profile artists such as Damien Hirst, Patrick Hughes, and Ai WeiWei. He’s basically an expert in making money and buying Monet. Believing that admission into the art world is often far too difficult and elitist, Choudhury founded ArteVue, an app that utilizes mobile social technology to instantly connect artists, collectors, curators, and general art lovers all over the globe 24 hours a day. And the best part about it? It’s absolutely free.
An app with an unsurprisingly artistic design and high-tech software, ArteVue is mercifully simple and free from pretensions. Through ArteVue users are able to discover new artists, sell artwork by uploading it onto the app, create PDFs of artworks to send to clients, catalogue one’s own art collection, pin and curate artworks to make a virtual collection and create their own virtual art gallery. On top of that, a daily international news feed is also included to keep you up-to-date on major art world events that are going on.
One of the greatest benefits of ArteVue is its ability to foster younger artists and budding collectors who would otherwise find it difficult to build their career and gain recognition. Unlike the realm of Facebook where you’d generally just post inane content for your grandmother to scroll past in a dolorous haze, Artevue is a place where emerging artists can go to connect with a network of collectors and fellow artists. The idea of the app is to make art more accessible than ever before. An idea we can certainly get on board for.
Even if you’re not keen to either create or buy art, ArteVue can still be pretty nifty in allowing you to easily escape into another world by viewing everything from jaw-dropping photographs of Rio de Janeiro to post-Impressionist paintings by an artist in London. Which you’ll probably do at work because that’s what everyone does at work. It’s not ever going to replace the experience of going to a gallery and properly immersing yourself in art, but ArteVue does seem like it could be the next best thing.
For more information, visit artevue.co.uk
