Periodically I meet a friend, Marc McGowan, for coffee at Kopi in Andersonville. Originally from New York, Marc is an artist with an interesting view on the art scene.
Inevitably the conversation turns to a humorous yet earnest discussion of how to make money in art. Not big money. Not art star dreams. Just enough for a decent life.
Since Marc's unique art practice is rooted in photography, I wasn't surprised that he kept urging me to check out a photography site run by Jen Bekman. I was jaded on art and e-commerce, maybe on the art business in general, but after our last meeting I took my caffeinated self back home to take a look online.
Jen Bekman has a lot going on. She has a succesful bricks-and-mortar gallery in the cutthroat New York art world that has gotten positive press in international magazines such as Art in America and Artforum. But what really distinguishes Jen Bekman is her use of the Web.
Of course the gallery is online. That's business. What's driving her success is personality. She has a blog (Personism>) in which she deftly combines off-the-cuff commentary about her own life, the gallery, her Web business; mixing and matching them in a way that's entertaining while promotional, marketing while being personally welcoming. Some blogs grab an audience while others are essentially diaries: Jen's Personism blog caught on and it puts the octane into her e-commerce site.
This isn't a marketing lesson. The site, 20x200.com, with an emphasis on photography and works on paper, is an excellent place for anyone to start collecting. Each week a new photograph and work on paper is sold in three differently sized limited editions: 200, 20, and two. The pricing runs like this: the 200 are $20 apiece, the $20 are $200 apiece, and the two are generally $2,000. Anyone can collect here and the choice changes every week so you can keep on going back until you find the right piece.
Check out 20x200.com - Chicago rising star Brian Ulrich was featured on the site earlier this winter. And if you really want to see the final Web presence that shows how brilliant Ms. Bekman's approach is take a look at Hey, Hot Shot!. Anyone who uses the Web in their business (and who doesn't?) should check out Jen Bekman's entrepreneurial flair.
-Matt McDermott