Balibart Online Art Store Pop Up Shop Launch in London

Balibart Pop Up Shop set to open in Old Street Station for the festive Season

By Manolis Zografakis

Some weeks ago I received a press release about the launch of an online art store called Balibart in London. I had never heard of Balibart before so I clicked to see what it was all about and I instantly got hooked with the site… For the next half hour, without even realising it, I was browsing art prints like an obsessed art maniac. I am a bit of a fan of illustration and art in general, so staring at art prints like a hypnotised art lover is something that comes naturally and also gives me great pleasure. However, another reason why I couldn’t stop browsing Balibart, was that the site is very well designed with hundreds of super interesting artworks. I ended up ordering a beautiful print from the Danish artist Sara Gade.

So, what’s Balibart?

Balibart is a French online art store that was launched in September 2014. It represents a community of more than 200 upcoming but also established illustrators from around the world. Some of Balibart’s artists have created bespoke works for some of the most well-known brands and newspapers such as The New-York Times, The Washington Post, L’Oréal and Nike.

What makes Balibart special is that the art prints that can be found on the site are edited on Fine Art or Canvas paper and are available as limited editions, delivered with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. Prices start from £15 for a 30×40 cm print and  £3 for an A6 greeting card.

Balibart Pop Up Shop at the Old Street Tube Station

From 8th December until 24th December 2015 Balibart will be showcasing artworks from 50 selected artists (whose work can be also found on the Balibart website) at a one-off pop-up shop inside London’s Old Street Tube Station! You will be able to choose from a wide variety of prints, greeting cards, polaroids and art books, and the artists will be also signing artwork instore.

Some words from the founders

I was so interested in the story behind Balibart that I sent 2 questions to the founders, and here is what they answered:

1. Why did you decide to launch the site in the UK?

“We decided to launch a pop up in the UK for two reasons:

• We have a lot of international artists. London is very cosmopolitan, not far from Paris and we absolutely wanted to try an international city like London. Plus, the lifestyle and trend in London is very art, design and graphic oriented. So we thought it could be a very good fit with our products and our graphical touch.
• As a first step, we thought it would be more interesting to pop-up, rather than open a permanent store. It is obviously less risky for us and the location is great (we had a very nice opportunity with Appear Here – they really loved our brand and they sort of favoured us over other applicants.)”

2. How open is the platform to new artists (can an artist sell his artworks through Balibart?)

“So far, it has been important for us to carefully select the artists we want to showcase on Balibart. That’s how we created our unique touch and our editorial line. Now that we are working with more than 200 very talented and famous artists, we want to give the chance to other artists that we might not know to be selected through a sponsorship process. Our artists can recommend artists they know. Also, we want to allow any artists who would like to sell artworks on Balibart to apply thanks to a registration form. We can still accept them or not depending on different criteria. It is a very good opportunity for artists to be showcased on Balibart since we are working side by side with many brands and companies for made to measure illustrations, special commissions and exclusive projects. Besides balibart.com, which is the website for everybody, artists can thus be commissioned and work on new projects (we like to call it The Agency).”

What: Balibart’s new pop-up shop
When: from 8th-24th December 2015, 8am-7pm Mon-Fri; 10am-6pm Sat & Sun
Where: at London’s Old Street Tube Station (Unit 8)