Wright Harvey, CEO of Sugarlift (photo courtesy of Sugarlift).
The Livestream Public space in East Wiliamsburg just got its first tenant in Sugarlift, an online art boutique that commissions and sells exclusive limited-edition prints from a seasonally rotating group of artists.
According to a rep, Sugarlift‘s founders Wright Harvey and Bart Piela (both of whom have put in time at JPMorgan) took 650 square feet of office space at 200 Morgan Avenue, adjacent Livestream headquarters in the former 3rd Ward space, at 200 Morgan Avenue. Given that Sugarlift is mostly an online concern, this isn’t really all that interesting to John Q. Public — except for the fact that these guys are bound to throw some sweet launch parties on the roof and other public spaces.
So when’s the first one? Well, Sugarlift itself launches in early November, with an online “collection” of prints by nine Brooklyn artists.
Sure, for some folks the whole point of “shopping” for art is bouncing between openings and loading up on free PBR, but Sugarlift seems to be aimed at the more serious consumer who prefers, say, shopping online at JackThreads to fighting the scrum at Bloomingdale’s (which, by the way, now has some preposterously priced designer Sonic Youth t-shirts for sale). You can snag limited-edition prints that are shipped to you signed, framed, and ready to hang on the wall of your Williamsburg condo.
For the first “volume,” each artist will contribute 15 to 20 prints that’ll sell for $250 to $2,000. Those artists are Fanny Allié, Amy Barkow, Joe Hollier, Isaac Mann, Hiba Schahbaz, Chris Willcox and (in collaboration) Archie Foale, Jamie Foale, and Jamie Durkin. Until the full site launches, you can learn more about them at Sugarlift’s blog.