Rob Delamater knows what it’s like to want to own original art when you have less than a Steve Wynn–worthy bank account. Four years ago he and his neighbor, Gaétan Caron, worked as creative professionals and collected art in their spare time. But it was hard to find pieces they liked that didn’t trash their budgets. “We’re middle class and couldn’t afford this,” Delamater says. So they opened their own gallery, called Lost Art Salon, which features affordable works by lesser-known artists. Lost Art and these other Bay Area galleries prove that beautiful, original art can be had for under $2,500 and sometimes less than $100.

1
HANG ART
Many galleries claim they make buying art easy, but Hang, which displays the work of 70 contemporary Bay Area artists at its two Sutter Street storefronts, wins in this category by a landslide. Unsure of how a painting will look next to your television? You can rent it and return it if it doesn’t feel right. Want to show your wife the sculpture you eyed at the show? She can see it on the extensive website and even purchase it online. Price range: $100 to $6,000; average: $900. 556 AND 567 SUTTER ST., S.F., 415-434-4264, WWW.HANGART.COM.

2
LOST ART SALON
Nestled in a warehouse between a tool store and a ceramic tile shop, Lost Art Salon is, in every sense of the word, a find. Instead of a typical white-wall gallery, the year-and-a-half-old Lost Art is designed to resemble a Paris salon, complete with comfy sofas. The gallery displays work dating from the 1900s to the 1960s. Price range: $60 to $2,500; average: $350. 245 SOUTH VAN NESS AVE., SUITE 303, S.F., 415-861-1530, WWW.LOSTARTSALON.COM.

3
GREENRICE GALLERY
Jenny Do started this little gallery in a San Jose office building as a reprieve from her job as an attorney. GreenRice primarily features Vietnamese diaspora artists (including some who are prominent in Asia). Do wants her gallery to play a role in social change and has exhibited Humans for Sale, a photo documentary on human trafficking, and this month will feature Woman, an exhibition of photographs and paintings by Do herself. Price range: $500 to $5,000; average: $1,500. 300 S. FIRST ST., SUITE 310, San Jose, 408-455-0175, www.greenricegallery.com.

4
LINCART
On a recent visit to Lincart, the minimalist gallery was showing MeeNa Park’s maplike prints of Jerusalem’s Arab, Armenian, Christian, and Jewish quarters, with each neighborhood distinguished by the colors she observed while wandering the Old City. That’s just one example of Lincart’s eclecticism. Co-owner Alexandra Fouladi once paid a man off the street $50 for a cardboard house he’d made. Price range: $500 to $25,000; average: $3,500. 1632C MARKET ST., S.F., 415-503-1981, WWW.LINCART.COM.

5
ESTEBAN SABAR GALLERY
Displaying

everything from Pop art to elegant works on paper, this Oakland gallery is hard to pigeon­hole. Esteban Sabar says he founded his cavernous namesake so his husband, Marty McCorkle, could have a place to display his figurative paintings. What emerged is a commercial gallery that’s a symbol of change in Oakland’s once-underground art scene. A crowd turns out on the first Friday of the month for Art Murmur, Oakland’s gallery crawl. Price range: $150 to $45,000; average: $1,500. 480 23RD ST., OAKLAND, 510-444-7411, WWW.ESTEBANSABAR.COM.