Peggy art marketplace app for buying and selling art

Peggy is a marketplace that connects art lovers with contemporary artists and galleries. Techcelerant designed and built its app for iOS and Android. Collectors can discover artists, follow the ones they like, build collections, listen to audio about the work, get notified about new pieces and buy original art through a secure online checkout. Artists and galleries can list and sell their work in the same app.

The client

Peggy focuses on original contemporary art from emerging and established artists working in cities around the world. Its audience includes new collectors buying their first piece and experienced buyers following specific artists. The client's team wanted buying art to feel personal, with the artist at the center of every listing, and wanted sales to support artists directly.

The problem

Buying art online often feels like scrolling an anonymous product grid. Buyers can't see who made a piece, what else that artist has made, or why the work matters. Many also worry about authenticity and payment when spending real money on a piece they haven't seen in person. Artists, on their side, needed a way to build a following around their whole body of work.

Peggy needed an app that would:

• Put artists first, with their story next to their work.
• Let collectors follow artists and save favorite pieces.
• Add context through audio alongside images and text.
• Handle purchases securely, with authenticated transactions.

What we built

The home feed is organized by artist:

• Each artist block opens with a round photo, the artist's name and a one-line bio, such as their birth year and the city they live and work in.
• A black "Follow" button turns into a plain "Following" label once a collector follows that artist.
• A horizontal row of artwork thumbnails sits under each artist, so collectors can swipe through a body of work without leaving the feed.
• Tapping a piece opens its detail page with images, size, medium, price and artist notes.
• In-app audio plays recordings about a work or an artist's practice, like a gallery audio guide.
• Collectors can curate collections of saved pieces.
• In-app notifications alert collectors when an artist they follow posts new work or a piece they saved changes.
• Online checkout handles payment for original art, with authenticated transactions.
• Artists and galleries can create listings and manage sales.

A bottom bar with Home, Shop, Notifications and Profile, plus a menu and search at the top, covers the main areas.

Design decisions

We kept the interface almost entirely black and white. Art comes in every color, and a neutral frame lets each piece look the way the artist intended. The logo is small and centered at the top, so it never competes with the work.

Organizing the feed by artist was the central choice. Showing a person, a short bio and several works together gives collectors the kind of context they'd get walking into a gallery, and it gives artists a reason to grow a following.

Thumbnails are square and the same size, in rows that scroll sideways. A collector can compare an artist's pieces side by side at a glance, and the vertical feed stays easy to move through.

The Follow button is solid black, while "Following" is plain text. That makes it clear which artists a collector already follows and keeps the screen from filling up with buttons.

Audio was added to bring some of the gallery experience into the app. Hearing about a work helps a buyer decide in a way photos alone can't.

The result

Peggy is live on the App Store and Google Play. Collectors can discover artists, follow them, listen to the stories behind the work, save collections and buy original art with a secure checkout. Artists and galleries have a place to build an audience and sell directly to it.

Our post on ecommerce product photography covers how image quality affects sales in a marketplace like this.

Planning a marketplace app? See our mobile app development service or contact us.