Have you ever found it difficult to purchase art? I have. This is the story of why we decided to create Kreoz.
It’s spring and my wife and I are both excited. We’ve just moved into our first very own apartment. We’re sitting on the floor among cardboard boxes and start dreaming up how we want to furnish our new home. Our eyes quickly fall on the blank white walls, and both agree we want to decorate with colorful art that inspires.
But agreeing on what proves challenging. I suggest we use the small collection of posters from my student days which, in my humble opinion, shows both sophistication and good taste: Gauguin’s “Joyeusetés” (the one with the dog in the foreground), a painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps (David’s “Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass”) and finally, the famous poster of the Beatles at the Abbey Road zebra-crossing. My wife summarily rejects the proposal.
No online catalogue for art
Luckily my parents have offered to pay for an artwork of our choice as a homesewarming gift - as long as it’s not more than a few hundred dollars. With that in mind, we set out to buy our first joint artwork.
We soon discover that it’s pretty hard to get an overview over what art is out there. Unlike, say furniture where we only need to consider 3 or 4 different companies and all of them have a full online product catalogue, there is no equivalent for art. The market is very much a local one, spread across tens of galleries in Oslo alone and only a few of them have an online offering.
- We feel rather stupid
We end up just having to visit galleries one by one. To make matters worse, we know very little about contemporary art and feel rather stupid going around asking questions. Many galleries are simply out of our price range and others, naturally, not at all to our taste. The whole process consumes many free Sunday afternoons and take several months. We finally settle on an abstract piece that we are both reasonably happy with at a price that borders the limit of our housewarming gift.
- must be a better way
While the painting still hangs on our wall today, the experience left me thinking that there must be a better way!
This was a few years ago, and we’ve since seen how other industries like music, news and TV have been transformed by technology. People can now easily get access, overview and help finding content they like through streaming- and subscription services. But until recently, the art world did not follow suit. That’s why my co-founder Filippo and I decided to create Kreoz so that everybody can have easy access to art in their home.
Our first product is an Apple TV app that lets you display quality contemporary art on your TV. Our vision is to bring art closer to people and people closer to art. Whether you’re knowledgeable about art or not, I encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter to follow us on that journey – and to get some inspiration along the way. Sign up by adding your email below.
