Joe Sigel admits that he can barely draw a stick figure. But that hasn’t stopped his business, ART on 5th, from becoming the premier contemporary art gallery in Austin.

“I really never planned on being a retailer, but I saw a need for a contemporary fine art gallery,” said Sigel, who entered the world of art in 1986 as a private dealer selling American art to Japan.

When he moved to Austin from Santa Fe in 1995, the Austin Children’s Museum had just moved to its downtown location, leaving the perfect space open for his gallery on West Fifth Street.

“The location was perfect, the space was perfect,” he said. “The landlord offered to clear out all of the ramps and diagonal walls, but it was exactly what we needed.”

With an undergraduate degree from Syracuse University in math and a master’s of business administration from Carnegie Mellon University, art was an unlikely career path for Sigel. But he quickly realized that in both business and art, he had a knack for spotting the opportunity or piece for any occasion and then marketing, or framing, it perfectly.

In addition to being the place to go for fine art, ART on 5th has also become the premier framer in Austin, thanks to Sigel’s unorthodox techniques and dedication to finding the perfect frame to go with a piece.

“It’s strange. I think the reason we’ve become so well-known for framing is because I had no real experience with it,” he said. “Typically, framers get on-the-job training but since I didn’t, I came up with things like hand-ripped linen for mats.”

Since Sigel had no training or interest in “the way things were done” in framing, his frame designs stick out for their uniqueness.

“We have a tremendous selection of frames that’s always changing,” he said. “A lot of the frames we buy go out of production because we always pick the quirky or different ones. When a frame dealer says, ‘Let me show you our most popular designs,’ I say ‘no thanks.’ ”

In the same way the art he sells comes with a unique frame, his gallery has a unique configuration. While most art galleries are small with rotating showcases from month to month, Sigel’s gallery has four distinct parts.

The first, or upper floor, is his rotating showcase room, currently featuring small, affordable pieces for the holiday season. One level down sits his permanent collection featuring art from artists in his “stable,” 30-60 artists who have a continuing relationship with the gallery. About a third of these are locals.

Around the corner from these works sits one of the largest collections in the country of the secret art of Dr. Seuss. Ted Seuss Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, died in 1991. Four years later, his wife put out a book titled “The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss,” showcasing the works he saved for himself that tended to be more adult in nature. The pieces were an instant success and have been skyrocketing in value. Once again, Sigel saw a business opportunity and an opportunity to “Keep Austin Weird,” and has been growing his collection steadily.

“We have these crazy sculptures called ‘Unorthodox Taxidermy,’ ” Sigel said.

While the original busts were made from the horns and beaks of animals that had died at the zoo tended by Dr. Suess’ father in Massachusetts, the remaining sculptures, while still hand painted, have been cast from the originals. Sigel’s collection includes the “Goo-Goo Eyed Tasmanian Wolghast” and “The Andulovian Grackler.”

“There are a lot of hunters in Texas; they put these up on their walls next to the trophies,” Sigel said. “It’s really different, but still fine art.”

Sigel’s latest venture for his gallery is “The Art of Jewelry.” What started as an idea for a small trunk show featuring 10 pieces of jewelry from 10 artists has become an entire show room of its own. After the name came to him, he realized that the framing was just as important.

“It was another one of these epiphanies; why don’t we frame it and hang it up on the wall?” he said. “It elevates it to an art form.”

When Sigel sold 35 of the 100 original pieces in four days, it clinched the decision to create a rotating showcase in the same building as the gallery.

For more information on ART on 5th visit www.arton5th.com or visit the showroom at 1501 W. 5th Street.