Platform—launched in 2021 by David Zwirner—offers access to high-quality art at reasonable prices with the ease of click-to-buy. It’s a rare case where e-commerce doesn’t dilute the quality of art on offer. Platform taps on the best emerging and mid-career galleries to curate a selection of artwork each month (prices typically start at $2,500). The site is designed beautifully, and the branding is everything you might expect from Zwirner.
Except for their artist collaborations, which consistently miss the mark.
This week, Platform launched a bolster pillow featuring a painting by Noah Davis, made in partnership with the late artist’s estate. Davis died in 2015 at the age of 32 from a rare form of cancer. The finite amount of paintings he left the world with are profoundly moving. The pillow feels like a glib household decoration for the magnitude of a painting by Davis. The painting itself is breathtaking, an intimate look at an everyday domestic scene framed through a doorway, providing immediate narrative tension. A generous reading of the pillow might argue that it’s a form of praxis, since the painting shows bodies in repose using pillows to prop up their bodies.
Other artist editions have included a bag by Cynthia Talmadge, a Stormy Daniels t-shirt by R. Crumb, and a hat from Mel Bochner that reads “Kick Against The Pricks” to support the Democratic party—an alternative to the red MAGA hat, which is so ubiquitous it’s become a meme. The slogan is vague and confusing, and the white-on-white text (a nod to the Suffergate movement) is difficult to read.
While all artists involved are great, the merch falls flat, lacking aesthetic and design sensibilities and an overall understanding of the fashion zeitgeist. They would be well served to get somebody on the team who understands how merchandise can intersect with a brand to create products people like and covet, all while offering people access to top-tier artists.
The last thing I’ll say about this is that the Platform team is very successful at email marketing and garnering excitement for drops through private previews and waitlists. And yet, none of these much-anticipated products I’ve mentioned above have sold out, despite their perceived time sensitivity and small edition sizes (100-200 pieces). These artists have the potential to sell out merch quickly—they don’t because the products lack in design, either aesthetically or functionally (or both!).
Art News This Week
Every night, from 11:57 p.m. to 12 a.m., all the screens in Times Square display digital art. The program has featured 100 artists since 2012, making it “the world's largest and longest-running digital public art program.” I had zero clue this was a thing until I saw a TikTok about it. This is such a great idea (kind of like an in-real-life Easter Egg!)— more cities should adopt it.
Sad news for the art world: Deli Gallery has announced that it’s closing. If three’s a trend, then we’re experiencing an epidemic of gallery closures. I recently read a quote from a young gallerist that they had to make 50k a month to cover their overhead—meaning two bad months could put them in 6-figure debt. Running a gallery is risky and expensive.
The Art Newspaper reported on the impact on artists when their gallery closes.
Anna Delvey got voted off Dancing With The Stars. When asked what she learned from the experience, she answered—“Nothing”. ❤️
Nan Goldin shot a recent campaign for Gucci. I love Nan Goldin (I have one of her photographs framed in my bedroom!), but these photographs fall a bit flat. Actually, they’re good photographs; they just don’t read like Goldin to me.
“Josh O’Connor is set to star in Kelly Reichardt‘s next film The Mastermind. The film centers on an audacious art heist amidst the backdrop of the Vietnam War.” I can’t wait!
If you’re a paid subscriber, look for a private event invite in your inbox this weekend…
Three recent exhibition texts:
“Julie Moon’s world of ceramics have the ability to float. Bulbous and round, or levitating on a wall, it’s as if they defy gravity’s pull and would rather be airborne. Or perhaps they hover slightly above this world entirely.” Full text here.
“The worldbuilding present in both Scott Everingham and Kristin Morthens’s paintings comes together to create an alternate reality of abstraction. The paintings speak to each other like they came from a fictional or dreamlike place. To understand one, you must understand the other.” Full text here.
“Translated from French, the title means the waves, referencing the structural wave of her volumetric canvases and the organic forms painted on said surfaces. Les Vagues can also be interpreted as something difficult to grasp or decipher: to be vague, to have something on the tip of your tongue. This is an uncomfortable place for most, but not for Lafontaine.” Full text here.
This is so true, and I applied for a beach towel decorated by Crumb once, it was affordable, if I remember correctly there was a raffle among the people who applied, but also the possibility of purchasing it. I remember going through all items and think how ugly they all were. Anyways, after applying I never heard from them, not even saying you did not win or you cannot buy it. After many newsletters with ugly items I decided to unsubscribe, and that was the end of it. It's a bit ridiculous but since this is still a gallery run luxury business, it seemed to me they also have a list of clients they want to sell to... I don't know if this is true, but this is how I felt. Even though it was affordable for anybody, it wasn't for everybody to buy....
Always great time performance.