The company bringing art to walls around the world

Andy Martin speaks to ARTIQ founder Patrick McCrae about jazzing up offices and hotels, as well as helping creatives make a decent living

The entrepreneur’s company began as a labour of love and has flourished ever since (Artiq)

Patrick McCrae and his dad were having a drink in The Three Tuns in Great Abington, Cambridgeshire, when they came up with a business plan. They decided that the pub could do with a bit more art on the wall. And so ARTIQ was born. Their first customer was the Queen’s Head, Harston, but they now have a collection adorning the walls of The Three Tuns itself.

Patrick McCrae was born in Cambridge and took A-levels at Hills Road Sixth Form College in chemistry, physics, maths and history – an unlikely combination for someone who was going to rent out art. But there was an arty side to him all along. “Culture rather than just art,” says McCrae. “It’s always been part of my life.”

He started playing the piano aged three. “And I’m playing it a lot more in lockdown,” he says. His mother is an artist – a sculptor – and his grandfather was a painter. As he was growing up, he was a frequent visitor to Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, the museum of contemporary and 20th-century art.