*by Bethany Whiteman and Brie French-Sorgini
First there was Tinder for lovers, now there is Tinder for art lovers.
New Yorkers are all about instant gratification. That’s why nearly all inhabitants of this island went crazy the moment Tinder was first introduced to us. Now, artists and art lovers alike can experience the same excitement that all of NYC’s finest singles felt once upon a time when the idea of a single swipe could lead to their happily ever after. Art lovers, meet your newest match: Wydr.
The new Swiss-based app, Wydr, has created a platform based off of the Tinder framework that makes it possible for all art lovers to find new pieces of work by simply swiping right. Once you filter the range of your budget and size of the work you wish to find (similar to how you would filter the age and distance of your potential suitors on Tinder), users are given various artworks to swipe through until they find their perfect match. As stated on the app’s website, “Art galleries are for the 1%, Wydr for the 99%.” Pricing options can be as low as $56 to maxing out at $64,000. Wydr’s co-CEOs, Timo Hahn and Matthias Dörner, made it their mission to create a space that exposed the public to affordable pieces of work by lesser-known artists. Matthias believes that, “Wydr changes how people interact with art. No curator, as all artworks are community curated. Artists get feedback on what users like, and users see what’s hot.”
This app doubles as platform for artists to seamlessly get exposure and sell their work. It truly is as easy as setting up a Tinder profile: create a login, add information to your profile, and upload your images. This gives up-and-coming artists the opportunity to learn how to market themselves, price their work, and build a network.