Cohart is a platform to discover, buy and sell art via an app or online, as well as a social marketplace, launched last year by global art curator Kendall Warson and gallerist and art dealer Shyevin S’ng. Kendall tells Austin Lifestyle, “Before building Cohart I built something called Wonderspaces, working with artists around the world and seeing that only about 15 percent of artists had gallery representation and the other 85 percent were using Instagram as a place to build their brand and their business.” The problem with that, “Instagram was never built for the needs of artists,” she says, “They’re small businesses and they need tools to grow their businesses and credible tools to sell their art. So, the original idea was to provide a platform for artists to be able to sell directly to their collectors, but also have that community you have on Instagram.”
Since December 2023 the platform has gone from 500 monthly active users to 12,000 monthly active users as of press time, of which 300 are verified artists who are selling. Kendall says about 10-15 artists are signing up every day. She explains that Cohart is different than other platforms where people can purchase art because “Cohart is a social marketplace. We really emphasize discovery, connection, engagement and storytelling so that you can discover artists. It’s very much a community-driven marketplace that prioritizes connection.”
You can find art on Cohart ranging from $500 to $50,000, with Kendall sharing that the average sale is around $7,000. “We’re targeting middle-market and work with artists in the mid-phases of their careers who want to have direct connections to their collectors,” Kendal says. They currently have about 20-30 artists in Austin, a place Kendall thinks, “has an exceptionally vibrant art scene with a lot of really interesting artists and buyers.”
One of those artists is Christopher Kelly, aka C.R. Kelly, a full-time abstract artist who made the transition from his own business designing wine bottle labels to his childhood passion of painting during the pandemic. We sat down with him at Bufalina (where his wife is the general manager and his work can be found on the walls) for a chat about his art and experience with Cohart. He says being an artist is “a business 90 percent dominated by marketing and being a CEO,” so when he was connected to Kendall shortly after their launch it proved helpful in solving problems from discovery to shipping, giving him more time to paint.
So far, he says, “My experience with Cohart has been great! It’s new and I’m excited to see how it grows and to grow with it. It’s been nice referring people to it who may not feel comfortable buying art on Instagram. Cohart solves a lot of problems like that for burgeoning artists who are trying to sell more work. And, they take 25 percent compared to a gallery that takes 50 percent or more and the shipping is taken care of, so it eliminates a lot of the hassle.” Kelly has sold a few pieces on the platform, is helping plan an event in Austin soon and says, “I’m really excited about the future of Cohart and the accessibility to more people other than art people. It allows people to dive deeper and find something unique.”
Find C.R. Kelly’s storefront and more about the platform at https://www.cohart.com/u/crkelly/artworks or on Instagram at @joincohart.
"The idea was to provide a platform for artists to be able to sell directly to collectors, but also have that community you have on Instagram...We emphasize discovery, connection, engagement and storytelling" -Kendall Warson