Illustration by Alejandro Duran
When Instagram launched in 2010 it was perceived as a place where people could instantly share photos of themselves drinking mai tais in Maui to the envy of all their friends.
It has unwittingly (and undoubtedly) become the biggest and most visited art gallery in the world. Collectors are taking notice.
More than 70 million photos are shared each day through Instagram and the app is shaking up an art world that is often viewed as elitist and cloistered.
Artists around the globe are seizing on its democratizing power. Instagram is a virtual museum wall that allows artists to circumvent the cliquey world of brick and mortar galleries.
Los Angeles artist Petra Cortright is a fan.
“Instagram is more important than the openings now,” she said. “I think an artist’s work speaks for itself, whether it’s seen in a gallery or an iPhone. If it’s good, it’s good.”
Collectors apparently agree. More than half of the art collectors surveyed by Artsy.net, an online platform that promotes and sells art, said they purchased works from artists discovered on Instagram.
A survey by Artsy.net, an online platform that promotes and sells art, revealed that 51 percent of art collectors surveyed purchased works from artists they originally discovered on Instagram.
Ashley Longshore, an artist and gallery owner, said she frequently sells her art for upwards of $30,000 on Instagram.
“I can post a painting and it can sell before the paint is dry,” she said. “My collectors will text me and e-mail me their credit card details, they mail checks. It is literally a frenzy.”
Blake Tomczak, 20, a Southwestern College fine arts major, said he takes advantage of the platform.
“Initially I didn’t consider Instagram something that I could post my art on,” he said. “Over time, the people that spent more time on it separated into different groups and eventually it gave birth to an art community.”
Tomczak, who specializes in portraiture employing a unique Chicano-cubist style, said his Instagram posts resulted in commissions for freelance work.
Blake Tomczak uploads his work to Instagram for display.
“I actually was commissioned to draw three portraits for a photographer for an LA-based magazine who found me through Instagram,” he said.
Karen Robinovitz, art collector and former editor of Elle magazine, said the app bridges the gap between supply and demand.
“Collecting art is an addiction and Instagram is the dealer and the pusher that enables it,” she said.
Instagram helps up-and-coming artists to showcase their creations while creating a digital portfolio that can be shared with virtually anyone.
Aaron Pretty, 22, a SWC dental hygiene major and artist, said he saw other artists find success so he gave Instagram a shot.
“I was always scared to post my art because I didn’t want people to think ‘oh this guy thinks he’s so cool posting his art,’” he said. “Then one day I saw someone I used to watch on YouTube, Craig Gleason, and he would try getting his drawings out. His popularity grew and it really put it into perspective for me. Success starts somewhere. If you keep it bottled up no one is going to see it.”
Gleason now has 43,000 Instagram followers and has had pieces displayed in the prestigious Gallery1988 in Los Angeles.
Pretty said fear was the biggest obstacle he faced.
“If you’re always scared of being called pretentious you’re never going to go anywhere with it,” he said. “It’s all this fear of getting your drawings bashed, people not liking them or being thought of as too cool.”
Pretty said his goal is to be discovered on Instagram so he can achieve a career in art.
Aaron Pretty uploads his work to Instagram for display.
“I don’t want to make it out to be rich,” he said. “I just want to draw for a living. Right now I’m having a hard time between school and reality. That’s why I try harder on Instagram.”
About 80 percent of college students change their majors before committing to a major. Pretty said he is facing a career tug-of-war.
“If I do the dental hygiene program in two years, I could have money and not be living at home,” Pretty said. “But that scares the hell out of me because that’s a demon fighting with the one that wants to draw all the time. So if I come off as desperate on Instagram, it’s because I’m trying really hard to get noticed.”
Tomczak admitted that he changed his major four times before choosing art.
“It took me a while to come to the point where I decided that art was something I really wanted to pursue and that it would be the main focus of my life,” he said.
Photography major Alan Joseph has been hired through Instagram for small portrait gigs after posting his portfolio on Instagram.
“I started finding people that were into creating very artistic expressions of themselves and I was so intrigued,” he said. “I thought, ‘why am I not pursuing myself that way?’”
Many of his subjects have come from Instagram, he said.
Instagram is projected to have 400 million users in 2016 compared to 8.8 million visitors a year for the Louvre and 6.8 million for the British Museum. Unlike the classical repositories of great art, Instagram requires no travel, entry fees or waiting in line. It is the world’s first hand-held gallery and art brokerage.
It even works in Maui.
