If you ask me about the place where I most like to be, I will tell you that it is my living room.

I was well into my 50s when I discovered that I could own original art. Growing up in a working class family in the Brooklyn of the 1950’s, we didn’t have art in our home. In college I had my posters and (god forgive me) photographs I cut out of books. Later, there were the souvenirs of travel—an oil lamp from Turkey, a Bedouin camel bag, a ceremonial mask from Chichicastenango, my own black and white photographs…. And then, some years ago, we inherited some artwork–some fine old botanicals and a very good print by Helen Frankenthaler. It began to dawn on me that I could actually own Art.

Visiting galleries, traveling, from time to time, my wife and I would find a painting, a sculpture, a print that we loved and was affordable and we would buy it. And then, about ten years ago, we bought a set of ten prints–work of contemporary American artists–the proceeds from the sale going to a cause we believed in. And suddenly, it seemed, we were collectors. And I was living with art.

My life changed.

Art began to matter more when I realized I could be living with it and that living with it truly enriched my life. I started subscribing to magazines, visiting galleries more regularly, joining museums, attending art fairs. I began talking with gallery owners and taking classes. And I bought more art. I buy work that I want to live with, and now I have started a gallery to help others do the same.

There are wonderful artists out there who don’t have galleries to show their work. There are thousands of people who want to live with art that is original and unique. José-Marc Gallery is here to bring these two populations together. We go to the studios—in Brooklyn, in Buenos Aires, in Mexico City, in Havana….We accept and open the envelopes filled with images that artists send out to galleries everywhere in the hope of being seen. We go to their web sites. And, if we like their work, we represent them, put them on our site and bring their work to the appropriate art fairs.. We promote their work and we attach a fair price to acquiring it.

Our mission is to make it possible for anyone to enjoy the gift of living with art.

Your collecting days can begin here.