I hope the won’t-pay-$100-for-a-painting (or $100 per installment) crowd is large enough to make your business worthwhile. It’d be amazing to simultaneously fund new artists, bring regular Joes/Janes into the art world, and have a sustainable business at the same time.
But that little MBA demon on my shoulder is whispering that targeting low willingness-to-spend consumers will result in, at best, strongly limiting growth and, at worst, a perpetually money losing business. I’m just speculating since I don’t know your financials, so if you’re already in the black, my apologies. If you’re both in the black and don’t care about growth, apologies again.
But assuming you want to grow and/or aspire to be profitable, you’ll either need to grow the size of the art market (hard) or sell to wealthier (or at least, people who spend more of their money on art) consumers (less hard). Social proof is a huge factor for buyers of substantial art, to the point that a handful of people/galleries/etc get to define what constitutes great - and therefore very expensive - art (there was a great Adam Ruins Everything episode on this https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dw5kme5Q_Yo). My mom is very involved with the main art museum in my city, going on trips with other benefactors to buy art for the museum. She also buys art herself - not crazy expensive super known pieces like Damien Hurst’s shark, but still high-end pieces from up-and-coming artists (to put it another way, she buys pieces that aren’t in the $1 million+ range). She uses her own sensibilities primarily, but to find the art itself and ensure the price she’s paying isn’t for a dumpster, she relies on people in the art world.
So, I’m just suggesting you consider two characters of art consumers: (1) social proof drives their decisions and (2) there are often wealthier. Your creative juices might find something really innovative for the social proof component; I don’t have any specific suggestions at the moment. But on (2), consider targeting people in between Steven A Cohen (bought Hurst’s shark for $8-$12 million) and the <$100 art buyer. Given the success (until recently) of Restoration Hardware, I believe you could find people willing to pay $1,000-$10,000 for art. People pay thousands of dollars for a sofa, why not the art that’s on display in their homes? You could imagine quite a few professional, internet savvy DINCs (dual income no children) in their 30s or 40s being interested in having a substantial art piece. They may be intimidated by galleries and not know what to select. Just something to think about to boost your margins.