August 9, 2016
You would be forgiven for dismissing the world of contemporary art as clubby and rarefied. It so often is. And when it comes to the artists represented in its upper echelons—and the collectors who trade on their names—there is work to do across the industry to help raise the profiles and access of women and people of color.
There’s also, of course, the issue of gatekeeping: Often, jumping into the fray as a new collector can be prohibitively intimidating, with the world of brick-and-mortar galleries and stalwart auction houses having earned a justifiable reputation for being difficult to navigate without some sort of help, especially for first-time art buyers.
Uprise Art, a five-year-old, New York City-based online art gallery, aims to help alleviate those pressures, and democratize the buying process. For Uprise, both new art collector Jamal and seasoned, discerning buyer/CEO Jane should be able to find quality art at any price point with an easy-to-use website that will surface artists they may not already be familiar with.
“The idea was to make collecting art more accessible and enjoyable,” the company’s founder, Tze Chun, told Curbed in a recent phone interview. “Going to galleries in Chelsea isn’t the most flexible or welcoming way [to get introduced to art],” she adds. Rest of story