Welcome to half two of our sequence spotlighting the artists and establishments behind The Frame’s one-stop artwork store, the Art Store.
In half one, we met illustrator Hyun Kim, who mentioned how The Frame has helped his playful illustrations discover a wider viewers. Here, we flip our consideration to the curation course of in a wide-ranging interview with the Store’s official curator: a world-renowned artwork advisor who’s spent the final 15 years creating bespoke artwork experiences, Elise Van Middelem.
Q: What are your fundamental obligations as The Frame’s Art Curator & Advisor?
My obligations vary from researching and recommending artists, to contacting the fitting companions, deciding on particular paintings, and defining key classes.
Q: How lengthy have you ever been curating artwork for The Frame?
In 2016, Samsung and [Swiss designer] Yves Béhar reached out to me to collaborate on The Frame, and I used to be instantly attracted by the opportunity of demystifying the artwork expertise. For me, artwork is a second language – a lens that has helped me perceive individuals from all backgrounds and cultures. Our aim was to make The Frame’s artwork assortment accessible to anybody on this manner, which is why it consists of artists from the 4 corners of the world – from Southeast Asia to Canada, and from South Africa to Europe.
We determined to start out with a big selection of artworks overlaying a wide range of classes, together with Landscapes, Architecture, Wildlife, Drawings, Digital Art, Action, Still Life, Patterns, Urban Abstract and From Above. This provided The Frame customers the sensation that they owned a curated artwork assortment of museum high quality.
The names of the classes converse for themselves. However, inside every one, my aim was to seek out paintings that transcends the expertise of conventional wallpaper or inventory images, and to duplicate the sensation of coming into a digital gallery exhibition through which each paintings has been fastidiously chosen. The curation and integration of an Art Store inside The Frame got here at a later stage.
Q: How have the artists and companions you’ve collaborated with responded to The Frame?
The artists I’ve labored with see it as an excellent thought that might actually change individuals’s perceptions about how artwork may be displayed. They’re excited by the way it invitations artwork into your private home so it might probably have an effect on you in your personal area, at your personal tempo, and in your personal time.
Q: How do you provide you with themes for brand new collections?
The preliminary set of themes for the Art Store grew naturally out of the creation of The Frame’s artwork assortment. It was an exquisite base to work with and broaden from.
Today, themes include moods. Ideally, we might need anybody to have the ability to discover paintings that matches their temper of the day.
If you check out the Art Store’s hottest items, you’ll discover that almost all of customers are drawn to pictures depicting tranquil surroundings, and to the works of the Old Masters. Examples of the previous embrace the Art Store’s most seen piece, Julia Contacessi’s “Odyssey,” in addition to Liesl Marelli’s calming “Ripples of Low Tide II” and Sandy Dooley’s playfully colourful “Painting for Mary.” Classic items like Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” and “Almond Blossom” have additionally struck a chord, which reveals that customers are most curious about paintings that brings a little bit of Nature, or lovely surroundings, into their properties.
Q: Is there a set within the Art Store that you just’re significantly pleased with?
I maintain the expertise of curating the primary assortment of artworks for The Frame very near my coronary heart. It was a novel alternative to collaborate with numerous artists from around the globe to create essentially the most complete, accessible, and gorgeous museum-quality artwork assortment, completely for The Frame.
Through the hands-on expertise of curating that assortment, I realized what works very well on The Frame. In that manner,…
