“In the 1950s, you could do the whole art world in an afternoon,” Irving Sandler, the renowned art historian and critic once told me about gallery hopping in New York. Not anymore. In the fifties, art galleries were clustered around 57th Street in Manhattan. Today, over 700 galleries sprawl across Chelsea, Tribeca, Chinatown, the Upper East Side and pockets of Brooklyn and Queens. The handwritten lists people once made to chart a gallery crawl have given way to smartphone apps.
For a decade, See Saw has reigned as the app for art world denizens, but the last year has seen the arrival of new apps and influencers — curator types, reviewers and spirit guides whose mission is to get you to discover art shows, exhibitions and events in New York, even internationally. These include Showrunner, Artwrld, ArtRabbit and Exhibits in New York. Why so many? The art world has expanded exponentially, but artificial intelligence has also made the app workload easier. They’re all free — so which one should you use?
See Saw
In January 2014, the brother and sister team of Ellen and Patrick Swieskowski founded See Saw, now the art industry standard for New York gallery-goers. Ellen has an art history background from New York University; she curates the galleries on the app. Patrick programs See Saw while also running a software management company. The app focuses mostly on gallery exhibitions and openings — and, since August, a few museums — with listings in clean, neat form. The goal remains “simplicity,” Ellen said. She and an assistant choose the exhibitions listed and readers can mark galleries that appear on a map and navigate the gallery-scape.
The app has grown to approximately 120,000 users and covers New York, Berlin, Paris, London and Los Angeles, but it still remains “artisanal.” Every listing is fact-checked and aimed at accessibility: “Anyone who is curious about seeing art,” Ellen said, when asked who is the target audience.
After running the app for a few years while working for the archives of the artist Lawrence Weiner and the gallerist Virginia Dwan, Ellen said she now supports herself by charging galleries a quarterly fee, which she would not disclose. They have several hundred member galleries worldwide.
It’s a model that can muddy the waters: If a gallery gets mentioned, for example, is it because Ellen thinks it’s worthy, or because it paid See Saw? (In an interview, Ellen said she maintains high standards by not listing every gallery that offers to pay.) If the gallery doesn’t pay — and many smaller galleries can’t afford to — will See Saw still list it? (Ellen said that she has a legacy program for galleries from the early days of the app.)
So what are the benefits? It’s a very workable and reliable app, with a map, that champions what’s happening in galleries. “You’re getting to see art in the very brief moment after it leaves the artist’s studio and goes into private hands,” Ellen said. “You can see museum quality works before they go into the museum.”
Conclusion: I’ve been using See Saw since its start and my neural pathways generally lead me back there. It’s great for those who know the names of artists and players. If you’re a newbie, it offers entry through its “Editor’s Picks,” “Opening This Week,” or “Nearby” map feature.
Showrunner
Where See Saw emphasizes the artisanal and handcrafted nature of its gallery listings, Hannah Deits, a founder of Showrunner, said “we’re data scientists.” Open Showrunner, which started up in May, and you can filter exhibitions by “neighborhood,” “subject” and “style.”
“We have a ton of information,” said Deits, who has worked in venture capital fund-raising. Showrunner uses A.I. to extract language recurring in news releases: you’ll find whatever trending phrases — like “surrealism” or the “Black experience” — galleries themselves are promoting.
Showrunner also highlights after-work events and networking potential. It’s intent on teaching the tech crowd (or any other interested parties) how to hang in the art world. When I asked Deits what platforms inspired hers, she mentioned Dice, a music-ticketing app that directs people to concerts and music venues.
Conclusion: This app strikes me as one for people who love data on what’s trending or where the “hottest” art blocks are. (Spoiler alert: they’re in West Chelsea and Walker Street in Tribeca.)
Artwrld
Artwrld, which became available in July, was created by Josh Goldblum, who worked as a new media specialist at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., before starting a company that designs spaces and websites for museums, among other institutions. Navigating the art world is his current obsession. “You can fix websites,” he said, “but it’s like fixing houses but not the roads. The ecosystem has problems: No connections.”
To remedy this, Goldblum recently hired Alex Feim, a young art enthusiast who works as an archivist for the mega-gallery David Zwirner and has a popular Substack and Instagram account. Goldblum took Feim’s mapping systems and content and put them into app software.
Open the app and you see “Exhibition of the Day,” along with openings, events and listings you can save on a map. Goldblum cites as touchstones AllTrails, the popular hiking app, and Headspace, for meditation, which helps users navigate and document experiences while connecting with like-minded people and experts in the field.
Artwrld is free now, but it intends to introduce a premium model where members can do things like visit artists’ studios. Goldblum is hoping users will go to Artwrld rather than Instagram for their “art fix.” The real aim is to move you “from the virtual to the physical world,” he said.
Conclusion: Artwrld is helpful for those who would like to enter the art world but are not, as Goldblum puts it, “of the art world.” There’s a lot of content (but not too much), images and event listings.
ArtRabbit
London-based ArtRabbit, started by Tom Elsner, a designer working with digital platforms in the arts, has been around for nearly two decades, but its New York push started only a year ago. It’s an open submission platform — galleries, museums and, yes, users, can upload and distribute information, vetted by moderators, for a mini-Time-Out listings guide. (“Find out what’s previewing today, opening soon and what’s popular,” it says on the main page.) After the pandemic, ArtRabbit upped its New York listings and on-site events, including panel discussions, industry nights and art tours.
Vivi Kallinikou, who joined the company after studying art history and working in galleries, says ArtRabbit is for “navigating cities” but also creating an international art network. She thinks of ArtRabbit as “the Spotify of visual culture.” (A dubious goal for some readers.)
ArtRabbit wants people to upload their own art worlds. She points to São Paulo, Brazil, as a model on the app, with content driven by a small group of artists and gallerists. The app supports “giving people the tools,” she stresses — but with some oversight.
ArtRabbit says it has 215,000 users across its website, newsletter and app, and focuses on getting viewers out and about — “attending an event that will teach you something,” Kallinikou said.
“You can fake things with A.I.,” she added, “but you can’t do it with real-life experience. People want to experience the ‘aura’ of the art.”
Conclusion: ArtRabbit suits the world traveler. I would be more inclined to use it in London or São Paulo than New York. but it’s a great tool for artists and others who often feel overlooked.
Exhibits in New York
The art world has a problem: It wants to be global and local at the same time. Exhibits in New York, an app that debuted in September, champions the local. It was created by Sarah Hassan, who works in the wine field, with Alexandra Tilden, a gallery guide at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, as the app’s editor.
Their aim is to showcase art criticism (yea!). Hassan was inspired by “lively and cantankerous” art reviews of yore, as well as platforms like Letterboxd, which narrows the divide between the curious neophyte and people who know a lot about cinema. “What do people who care about film care about?” Hassan asks. That’s what Exhibits in New York wants to explore in art. Rather than branching out to other cities, Exhibits in New York wants to create a print publication eventually. One of their inspirations is the soon-to-be-shuttered 4 Columns, a website for arts criticism.
Conclusion: Exhibits in New York speaks to me with its aim, as Hassan says, “to keep serious art writing around.” It’s the perfect platform for New York’s literati and art nerds to commingle.
And then there’s Instagram
Canvassing my fellow art critics, one quipped, “the real art app is Instagram,” with See Saw as a catchall for anything you missed. Art professionals follow the Instagram accounts of the “ex-gallerist” Margaret Murray, the editor Robin Cembalest, my Times colleague Andrew Russeth, or the art adviser Augusto Arbizo, who offer their personal views of exhibitions, openings and art fairs. The Instagram accounts of art publications like Art in America, ArtNews, Artforum and Hyperallergic are also helpful.
But what the five apps showcased above do, Swieskowski says, is help you “get off the couch,” stop scrolling and participate in looking at art.
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