Carter Cleveland, founder, Artsy
Under the right brush, a few dollars of oil-based paint on a cotton canvas can become a cherished masterpiece worth millions — the greatest luxury of all. Yet, the real-art market has traditionally only existed in a handful of cities. Created in his Princeton dorm room, Carter Cleveland's Artsy is upending that. With the help of the best galleries in the world, Cleveland is building what could be the art market's new global center for buyers and for folks who just want to look.
Paint By Numbers: "Artsy isn't about the art first and the science second. It's about the two of them coming together equally. In addition to being an art company, we're a hardcore technology and design company. We bring the two together on equal footing — that's where we think the magic happens."
Image Search: "So many people out there buy nice clothes, apartments, and cars, but they put mass-produced posters and prints on their walls simply because they don't have access to the world's top galleries. For instance, over 50% of the entire U.S. art market goes through Manhattan. By making the art world accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, there's an opportunity to massively expand the market and make fine art something that is one day as popular and ubiquitous as music and film."
Public Gallery: "If you go onto Artsy, you can see what is currently hanging on the walls of the top galleries in New York, London, Paris, Shanghai, the list goes on. In five years, we hope to be the main sales channel for art galleries in the same way that Yelp helps restaurants receive clients. Now, we'd be very happy if only 1% of our user base buys art — that would make the experience of seeing the world's art, and learning about the world's art, free for the other 99%. It's a public service and a luxury business."
Photographed by Winnie Au; Grooming by Andrew Colvin. Content originally published from Refinery29.
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