The Art World's Pandora

Art.sy

Home is where the art is – or it should be, and October’s public launch of Art.sy has moved accessible art a giant step forward, hoping to appeal to both art buffs and novices alike with its sheer selection and ease of use. Two tireless years in the making, founded by Carter Cleveland and backed by investors like Larry Gagosian and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Art.sy is an online platform with many numbers in its favour – partnerships with over 400 international galleries, and a fast-growing collection that currently boasts more than 25,000 works from over 3,700 leading artists.

In this digital age, when just about anything is available to just about anyone with a computer and an Internet connection, Art.sy has something unique: the ability to recreate the experience of viewing an exhibition – be it at the Dallas Art Museum, London’s British Museum, or Beijing’s Pekin Fine Arts – from the comfort of your home, and from any computer-operating corner of the globe.

Powered by the Art Genome Project, similar to and inspired by Pandora’s Music Genome Project (which matches users with new, undiscovered music based on their personal preference), Art.sy divides its staggering database into categories called genes, including easily identifiable ones such as ‘photography,’ ‘Eastern Europe’, and ‘surrealism’, while others like ‘glamour’ and ‘the fantastic’ are more open to interpretation. As a user, you can build your own database by picking ‘genes’ you like, and watch as your page fills up with recommendations based on your filters.

You can also follow specific artists, from the renowned like Auguste Rodin, Richard Avedon and Damien Hirst, to more contemporary names like Chinese installation artist Cai Guo-Qiang, American pop artist Ed Ruscha and Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic. Following them means you get notified when new exhibitions go live, or when their works go up for sale. And though not all of the works displayed on Art.sy can be bought, you can filter your dashboard with the ‘only works for sale’ option, and browse the selection for yourself or for gifts, as ‘tis the season after all.

Cleveland has no plans to stop at image sharing and selling – Art.sy is also fresh off a spin as the exclusive online counterpart for the legendary Design Miami, providing a simulated, online art fair experience for art lovers not in the Sunshine State. It will do the same for New York’s annual Armory Show in March.

Currently free and open to the public, Art.sy provides a simple, easy way to interact with the world’s many avenues of art, and is a great option for both fresh faces and seasoned collectors alike. This season, why not give the gift of art?


http://art.sy