Art for Everyone
Recently, art advisor Nicholas Campbell sat down with Liviani Cinthyana to talk about how he came up with Narcissus Arts, an art consultancy that is revolutionising the industry
Nicholas Campbell is considered one of the most outstanding art advisors of his generation. At the age of 27, he is the founder of art consultancies Narcissus Arts and Narcissus Interiors and is the only art advisor with the pioneering idea of focusing on acquiring contemporary artworks with a price tag of £10,000 or less.
As with all great stories, it started out on the bottom rung of the ladder. Nicholas was an intern at an art gallery when he was 16 years old, serving coffee, and constantly manning the photocopy machine along with other menial tasks. He endured that period with the valuable lessons he got from the top galleries he was exposed to, and he held on strongly to the belief that art was something that he wanted to focus on as a career path. When Nicholas finally graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Art History, he had no idea that life would lead him to become an art consultant and establishing his own company.
He charged on with the conviction that nothing was going to keep him from pursuing art as his life’s passion. When he finally found a gap in the art industry, he acted fast. After gaining significant experience in the contemporary art world at high-end galleries such as Emmanuel Perrotin, Haunch of Venison, White Cube and Christie’s, Nicholas founded Narcissus Arts in 2010, a privateart consultancy business that is built on the idea that art should be more accessible to a diverse range of people, instead of exclusively catering to an elite group.
Nicholas’s view is that the art industry still has a bit of this elitist element, leaving little space for most of the population who would like to enjoy art without facing high prices. So he set out with the belief of making art more accessible and routinely sourced art pieces from all around the world with prices under £10,000.
Since then, he has expanded, establishing a sister company called Narcissus Interiors to find the best art for interior designers and developers. With this unique belief and the right set of conditions, clients began to trust Nicholas to bring them the best artworks that are within their budget—all with guaranteed client satisfaction.
Nicholas carefully tailors clients’ tastes, making them feel that they are buying something more than a piece of investment— artworks that will allow them to escape to a different place altogether, where they can allow their mind to wander in new places.
At such a young age, Nicholas, who is an official ambassador for the Frieze Art Fair and on the committee of several arts organisations, has received several accolades. He is listed as one of the New 100—the biggest collectors in the world under 40— and won the Spear’s Magazine award for the Best Art Advisor under 35. In an industry overcrowded with advisors, Nicholas is sought-after for his bright, smart and knowledgeable voice.