These Virtual Galleries Help You Discover Up-and-Coming Artists
Walls feeling a little bare? Or perhaps you're looking to make an investment that looks good, too? There's no wrong time to start an art collection. And the best news? It doesn't have to require trekking to a fair or auction house—even if you want to discover up-and-coming talents. There are a whole host of smaller platforms that act like digital galleries, working with fewer artists and offering a distinct curatorial point of view. Here, we spotlight three of our favorites.
Tappan
Chelsea Neman Nassib founded this online art collective in 2012 to provide opportunities for emerging contemporary artists and provide a safe haven for new collectors. The platform sells original works as well as prints, and limits all editions to 30 or less; each piece is numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity. The platform also helps to direct an artist’s pricing, with the aim to grow their career—which causes past acquisitions to appreciate for collectors as well. “We help our artists maintain pricing so it is consistent across all their bodies of work, relative to where they're at in their careers and relative to their peers,” says Nassib. “The cool thing that we get to do is help raise an artist’s price based on demand—and as the value of that artist's work has increased, so has the value of the piece that somebody bought earlier in an artist's career.”
BetterShared
Swakara Atwell-Bennett founded BetterShared in 2016 as a blog and YouTube series that showcased emerging artists of the African diaspora. “It started to show people that this amazing talent existed,” she explains, a response to the lack of diversity in gallery representation, showcases and exhibitions. “I realized that I could complain to platforms, but I think I only would've gotten so far—and it would've only been that story being told by that platform in the way that they wanted to tell it. Or I could create the platform I wanted to see.”
The London-based enterprise relaunched as an ecommerce marketplace last year, featuring original and limited edition works by more than 200 artists. The site even includes a buy now, pay later option to make the works it sells even more accessible. “We want to be the leading platform for contemporary African art, but we’ve never lost that discovery aspect,” says Atwell-Bennett. “You’re coming to BetterShared to find emerging artists—to find the next big thing. We’re a place where you can find people pre-gallery, make an early investment, and hopefully watch your money grow in the future.”
Domingo Comms
When Veronica Petty founded Domingo Comms last year to amplify the work of Latin American and Latinx artists, she took a more design-focused approach. Her practice combines elements of an art advisory, design firm and online marketplace for collectors, as well as communications agency for artists. The platform sells limited edition prints on demand, but also showcases works with prices upon request. (Most of those pieces are currently selling for less than $2,000, though Petty’s goal is to raise the profile, and prices, of the work she carries.) “I'm hoping that by doing this, Domingo Comms can create a community and culture that people want to tap into, and that will keep elevating these artists so that they can grow in the market itself,” she says.
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