Tuesday, December 09, 2008

New York Art Exchange (NYAXE)

The New York Art Exchange media lounge and digital gallery at Bridge Miami Wynwood. Catherine McCormack-Skiba, CEO and founder of myartspace & NYAXE, mingles with press

The New York Art Exchange, an online marketplace for buying and selling contemporary fine art, was officially launched on December 2nd at the Bridge Art Fair in Miami. The New York Art Exchange (NYAXE) enables the art community to capitalize on new digital mediums through technology by connecting artists, gallerists and collectors via the World Wide Web. NYAXE can be used alongside www.myartspace.com. NYAXE and myartspace are owned by the Catmacart Corporation.

NYAXE will connect collectors, artists and gallerists together, allowing buyers to quickly search through thousands of works of fine art on the site and navigate through numerous curated pieces of works. Gallerists and artists can create a personal and customized branded online gallery storefront to begin selling on the NYAXE marketplace. The storefront gallery allows artists and gallerists to sell the following: an original piece of artwork, a digital version of the work (e.g. jpeg), or an on-demand version of the print on merchandise (e.g., posters, note cards, Giclees for example). Storefronts can be organized into categories such as watercolors, original works, sculptures, to make it easy for art collectors to find what they are looking for.

Brian Skiba demonstrates the capabilities of the New York Art Exchange
There are five different levels to choose from in building a NYAXE gallery storefront. A basic storefront is free for the first five listings, and each level provides more advanced features and marketing capabilities and cost effective pricing structures. The various tiers of service are designed to enable artists and gallerists to try their hand at ecommerce to build a basic store at a low cost. Artists and gallerists subsequently can upgrade to higher tiers if they wish to expand their offerings. NYAXE is a an affordable solution for exploring what eCommerce has to offer.

Catherine McCormack-Skiba, CEO and founder of NYAXE, stated, "It's been my vision for years to make great art accessible to a broader audience through technology and the internet. I'm excited that we can empower gallerists and artists to expand the awareness of their fine art and help them connect with a new audience of buyers on a global level."

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Take care, Stay true,
Brian Sherwin
Senior Editor

5 comments:

Deb Lacativa said...

I am really enjoying the entry level storefront capability at nyaxe.com.

Do you have a process for reviewing uploads for (at the least) picture quality?

What plans do you have for getting this site in front of collectors?

Anonymous said...

I'm excited about this as well. I believe I met your press man at the collectors reception at Art Basel Miami Beach. It is great to see that people with relationships in the art world have made a site like this. This site, Artnet, and Saatchi are it for me. Bravo.

Balhatain said...

Deb, some stores are Featured by our staff and there are also Curated Picks. The Featured works are some of the first you see when visiting www.nyaxe.com. This is a way to keep the same professional standard we have maintained with www.myartspace.com.

As for collectors, we have received feedback from several who have given us insight into the type of website they would like to see and use. This is one reason we use an escrow system of payment so that both the seller and buyer are protected.

As for attracting collectors. The HQ for myartspace and NYaxe is located in Palo Alto. As you probably know, it is a very wealthy community. So that location will play a role. However, we also send staff members to press/collector receptions at major contemporary art fairs. For example, I handed out over 100 informative cards during the press/collector opening at Art Basel Miami to collectors and over 500 to press and other interested individuals.

Anonymous said...

Looks to be a good solution for selling art online. I like the escrow system and it appears that sellers can have auctions or sell for a flat fee.

As a buyer of art I like to find options for buying art online. I also like a straight forward site for selling art from my collection when desired. The point to stress is security. An online buyer of art wants to feel secure about payment.

There could be some improvements to the design but I expect that will be resolved since the site just launched. Overall it appears to be more secure than Artbreak, Nobullart, or Artbreak.

If the new york art exchange is made by the same people who made Myartspace it will no doubt rise fast in popularity. Only a few sites have had mainstream art world attention and Myartspace is one of them. In that respect Redbubble, Deviantart, and Imagekind simply does not keep up with the pack. My two cents.

Anonymous said...

Myartspace and NYAXE is Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Artists! Both sites have what we need and a team that is dedicated to pushing it further. Plllllleaaassseee don't ever do the full page ads like Deviantart does.