One to Watch: ARTIQ
In this issue it is art consultancy ARTIQ, set up by Patrick McCrae with the intention of bringing great art to great corporate spaces
Words by: Emily Martin
Who
Great Northern Hotel, working with ARTIQ, has provided a mini exhibition of emerging artists in the lift lobbies. ‘As guests emerge on to the landing of any specific floor, they see one of the next – potentially – great British artists’, says McCrae. In the corridors, small collections of artwork that mirror the rotating exhibitions at the British Library hang opposite sofas. Artwork by Paul Kenton, in the Great Northern Hotel reception
Patrick McCrae is managing director of art consultancy ARTIQ, which he set up to bridge the divide between art and business. ‘And to bring great art to great spaces by facilitating the commissioning, buying and renting of art,’ he adds. The company works in the UK and abroad and represents some of the most exciting and dynamic up-and-coming artists and established talents, as well as having access to collections from key institutions including the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and British Library, McCrae says. ‘Our ethos is all about giving artists not only good exposure, but a fair deal too by paying artists to exhibit their work as well as sell it. That way our clients become art collectors and art patrons,’ he says.
Thoughtworks: Working with Morgan Lovell on the new London office for Thoughtworks, ARTIQ curated a collection of locally created works of art that were both ‘experimental and diverse’, adhering to the client’s vision of combining business with positive social change. A staff engagement tool was implemented to determine what should happen next on the wall. Art wall at Thoughtworks (various artists)
Why
McCrae founded his business in 2009, straight after graduating from his degree course at King’s College, London. ‘My parents were my inspiration for doing it,’ he says. ‘My father is a businessman and my mother an artist, so the idea was to bring the two worlds together for the benefit of everyone and to make sure artists got a fair deal in the process.’ McCrae recalls a time of Arts Council-funding cuts and the art market ‘desperately needing other ways’, over and above the traditional gallery route. He started by renting framed prints of Cambridge to corporate clients with regional off ices. McCrae is keen to sponsor awards too. ‘The main one being the Graduate Art Prize, now in its fourth year. The aim is to celebrate the very best of new BA and MA students completing art courses in the UK’, he says.
Graduate Art Prize ARTIQ co-runs this award, now in its fourth year and open to all final-year students on BA and MA degree courses at British art colleges and universities. ‘Many young artists think that galleries are their main, even sole, channel for getting started, whereas we are able to introduce them to the corporate art market and provide another means of support,’ say McCrae. Artworks by George Rouy, the Graduate Art Prize
Where
