Buying art is not a purely democratic process. Galleries are intimidating—sterilized boxes oftentimes void of emotion. And for the Brooklyn-based, Swiss-American artist Chrissy Angliker, the afterlife of her rich and dynamic paintings—that is, the buying and selling that constitutes what we call the “art market”—is as much a part of her process as the creation of the works itself, as she explains to her longtime friend, the jewelry designer Anna Sheffield. Though Angliker has lived in New York for some 20 years now, she doesn’t see herself as a local, per se. Which is why she trusts Sheffield, who she considers a “quintessential New Yorker,” as she enters the New York art scene. Angliker, whose paintings of the natural world and bodies of water burst with texture (sometimes she paints with spoons) has for years shown her work across the U.S. and Europe. Now, she’s settling into the city in which she resides. It started earlier this year with an exhibition at Massey Klein Gallery; then, in November, she became one of the first artists to make her work available for purchase on PLATFORM, the newly formed, digital e-commerce art store backed by David Zwirner. The site promises to equalize the playing field for buyers, a world that’s often gate kept by the super-wealthy and connected, and in the process pair first-time collectors with emerging artists at reasonable price points. Below, the two artists and friends have a conversation about the prevalence of nature in their work, the importance of sharing art with friends, and that one spring they were “high on tulips.”
