Decor: The unlikely journey of an interior art supplier

DECOR

We talk to Gavin Goodman, founder of the Semblance Agency

The unlikely journey of an interior art supplier

Earlier this year, South African photographer Gavin Goodman was named one of the winners of the Hasselblad Masters, widely acclaimed as one of the world’s most prestigious professional photography competitions.

Goodman won in the fine art category, something which, along with commercial photography work is what he has been specialising in for the better part of two decades. Until recently when a chance commission changed his career trajectory and he couldn’t be happier. So, from commercial photographer to interior art supplier, is that correct? Can you briefly sketch that unlikely path for us?

Correct, I started an agency called Semblance, which specialises in supplying custom art to the hospitality and residential markets. I noticed this really interesting gap in the market a couple of years ago when a property developer was looking for last-minute art to fill some rooms.

I ended up going to the site and doing a walk-through with the interior designer and without too much back-n-forth they bought two or three pieces per room. It was a quick, last-minute process and I was like, ‘wow, these guys just snapped up 15 prints - this could be an interesting market to play in.’ So I started asking around and chatting to a bunch of people and it quickly became abundantly clear that these developments and certain private residential clients are looking for original art on a certain budget, but they have very limited avenues they can explore because they are looking for art in large quantity but they don’t have the budget for one-off pieces. The agency was born out of that need.

It was very photographic-heavy, to begin with, but has since evolved, right?

Indeed, it started out as purely a photographic offering and over the course of the past year or so I have developed it into a whole fine-art section. All our work is very African-inspired and I’ve got two in-house artists who can pretty much create any style of art to brief. I am responsible for conceptualising and art-directing and then they bring it to life as in oil-on-canvas artworks. All the pieces are essentially sold as prints — as in, there are no artist’s name or anything like that it, all falls under the Semblance Agency umbrella.

You’ve had an exciting past few months, with some big projects, can you tell us a bit more?

It has been a very cool and interesting process for sure. Connecting with interior design firms has been a major aspect of business development. All of them say the same thing: ‘We are always looking for original and interesting art and struggle to find solutions within budget…’

No-one that I’m aware of is doing what I’m doing so, there is almost this kind of education phase with the interior design firms too. Explaining to them that we can create anything to a brief has been quite a process and some are quite hesitant because they haven’t necessarily worked this way in the past We’ve recently created art for The Station House in Sea Point, as well as providing all of the art for The Rockefeller a 395-unit apartment-hotel on the Foreshore at Harbour Place. I worked closely with Source IBA the interior design firm on that project. They were a pleasure to work with and I have already begun the conceptualising phase for another big project they are working on. Now it is all about networking with other interior design firms and developers as I continue to expand my catalogue of art.

What is next for you?

Growing the business! I still shoot commercially, though, but do far fewer shoots now, especially since the production landscape has changed post-Covid. I am also working on a commissioned book as part of the prize for winning in the Hasselblad Masters and that has been a really cool process.

Website: www.gavingoodman.com