Kelsey Dickinson in Conversation with SWAP UP ART Founder, Tracy Yuan
Tracy Yuan pictured with ‘Waiting I’, 2020 and ‘Waiting II’, 2020 by Brian Calvin.
When Tracy Yuan founded SWAP UP ART, a digital gallery for art renting and buying, the mission was two-fold: create a platform for emerging artists in which they could experiment with different markets; and provide an accessible service to introduce young people to art collecting. Tracy’s vision is simple, supply as many opportunities to both artists and collectors as possible because in 2021, the “one-size-fits-all" approach to selling art no longer applies.
In this interview, MADE IN BED Contributor Kelsey Dickinson connected with Tracy over Zoom to chat about the model for SWAP UP ART, how to bring art collecting to millennials and the opportunities she wants to create for artists.
Kelsey Dickinson: Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started in the art world?
Tracy Yuan: I went to Parsons for college, but my major was not in Fine Arts. I started doing an [undergraduate] programme for Fashion and Business Marketing in my first year, but later switched to a more diverse major, called Integrated Design. This programme gave me a lot of freedom - it was basically a free pass for taking classes across all majors and allowed me to experience every major that the school [offered]. It was cool because I was able to explore my interests and learn the skills that I wanted to learn without being trapped in one discipline.
KD: What gave you the idea to start your business SWAP UP ART?
TY: SWAP UP ART started as my senior thesis project at Parson’s. It was a time in my life when all my friends and I were exploring what we wanted to do after graduation. It was important for me that the project applied to the real world and was something I would want to carry on [after school]. I was very inspired by my classmates. There were a lot of Fine Arts majors who felt the pressure to get a ‘real’ job, and it was taking them away from their work. That’s when I [thought]: ‘Why don’t I build something that would help emerging artists like my friends by giving them a platform to sell or rent their work?’
After I turned in my thesis, I wasn’t really focused on it. I was looking for a job and got hired at a PR firm, where I worked for about a year. After six months, I felt like it was not what I was called to do, and so I started to look at SWAP UP ART again. I started prepping and doing real market research at that point to try and turn it into a workable business.
KD: Do you feel like the idea changed a lot when you transformed SWAP UP ART into something you really wanted to pursue?
TY: Yes, for sure. SWAP UP ART has changed in so many ways and has been reiterated so many times. When I was in school, the platform was for everything – paintings, sculpture, prop design, whatever students were working on at Parson’s. I would take their projects and try to get them out into the world, rent them to movie sets, or pop-up stores. Now the idea has transformed into more of a Fine Art focused platform. The focus is on artists, who are still emerging, but sophisticated in their work. And we’re still evolving – one thing I’m doing right now is trying to push the platform into a higher-end market for individuals and businesses.
SWAP UP ART’s Logo
KD: What is the driving mission behind SWAP UP ART?
TY: It’s 2021, why are there still only a few set ways to buy art? These buying options are not beneficial to our generation. We’re not financially there yet, unlike those mega collectors, who can collect million-dollar masterpieces every time they buy. So how can we, as art professionals, build awareness and buying options to connect with individuals on a broader scale? That's what I want to do: I want to connect art with people and I want to tell them that art is not what they think - it’s so much more. I want to reach the regular day-to-day consumer, who wants to buy, but doesn’t feel like they can access art the way they can access other things, like fashion. I especially want to involve people who want to support living artists.
KD: Who would you say is your ideal collector or client for renting art? What do you look for in those clients?
TY: I have two client sectors; one is businesses, and one is individuals. For businesses, I love to work with companies such as interior design firms, real estate agencies and retail stores, who I know will keep coming back for new projects and rentals. They will usually use artworks for staging a house or an apartment, or for a specific pop-up concept. And for individual clients, I'm looking for millennials like me. I want to teach them how to collect art and I want to grow their collections with them. Many people my age do not know that there are options that fit their budgets in the art industry. I love to grow with people and it’s a mutual relationship for me – I want to learn from them as well. The feedback that I get from my clients is priceless and they push me to go further.
KD: Do you think that artists are attracted to your gallery specifically because you offer different options for them to sell their work?
TY: Yes, I think so, especially for emerging artists. They need to play around with their work to figure out where they stand in the market and what kind of artist they are going to be. Exploring different sales avenues is like market research: a way to test and see if a piece is more geared for collecting with an individual or for the business market. They are vastly different markets. Mostly, individuals like to collect pieces that are unique because it's a personal purchase, and they will put it in their house only for themselves. But for businesses, clients need more universal works - or works that fall in line with a certain brand aesthetic. The appeal of renting works to businesses is an opportunity for it to be seen by a lot of people.
I always encourage my artists to do both, rental and sale options, at first, so they can test it out. For artists, who are very young and are still figuring out what they stand for, I think it's an effective way to learn. Eventually, they will figure it out and let me know if they only want to sell, or only want rent. I think they also come to me because I provide them with so many options to get their work out there and be seen. I can get them collaborations with restaurants, interior designers, pop-up stores, and real estate agents that they didn't have the resources or the time to get on their own. So, whenever I see a new artist’s work, I will immediately think of a plan of how to connect it with our collectors. The whole point of having these options is to get that visibility.
Tracy Yuan pictured with ‘Morning Sun’, by Henni Alftan.
KD: What do you look for when you are vetting new artists? Do you take distinct characteristics of their work into consideration for the rental aspect of your business?
TY: The main question I ask when I look at an artist is ‘Do I like your work?’ If not, it doesn’t mean their work is bad, but they must represent SWAP UP ART as a whole - it's a two-way street. I also have my own roster that I want to create, so I want to make sure that [prospective artists] are still an emerging, but have some social media presence, existing collectors, or have taken part in an art fair. It doesn't have to be a major art fair, but I like to know that they have been exposed to the market somehow. A lot of my artists are female, which I wasn't planning on. Some galleries only target small, segmented groups of artists - for example, only female artists. I love them for doing that, but I don't do that. I take artists of all backgrounds because I want to include everybody.
KD: What would you say is your long-term vision for SWAP UP ART? What impact would you like it to have?
TY: My long-term vision is to connect everything together. I want people to know that they have options. Not every piece of art is expensive. You can pay the same price for an IKEA print as you can for an original piece from a living, breathing person. There are so many types of art that would go with your budget and lifestyle. I don’t want people to feel intimidated by this world just because they don’t have an art education. That’s just one aspect of the vision.
On the other hand, I want to let people know that art is an actual job. We shouldn't have the starving-artist stereotype. I don't want people to say that anymore. Artists have careers, they can support themselves, and we can make that more of a reality by giving them more options.
KD: You have such a big social media presence and have really established yourself as someone who is incredibly involved in the local gallery scene in New York. How do you leverage that for your business and are your business decisions ever influenced by your social media presence?
TY: I have two Instagram accounts, @trace_out_art and @swapupart. My @trace_out_art account was born because of SWAP UP ART. In 2018, when I launched SWAP UP ART’s Platform again, I learned that it's hard to grow as a business on Instagram. Even if you have amazing pieces and people love your feed, it still can be difficult to push people to engage with the business because they think you're trying to sell something to them. So, I thought ‘I need to do something different.’ I needed to let people know that I’m a person, that there’s a human behind the business, and not a bot. That's how I started the @trace_out_art Instagram. I was already going to galleries all the time; I just didn't like to use social media. I didn't feel the need to share my life, so I really had to push myself out there. This account gives me an opportunity to share all my other interests as well and publish newsletters and my own magazine. I think that allowing people to know you facilitates connections. Obviously, that helps me tremendously in my business because now potential clients and artists will DM me, which has saved me so much time and allowed me to make valuable contacts.
The cover of the monthly magazine Tracy releases through her Instagram account. Tracy is pictured with an installation by Jon McCraken at David Zwirner in New York.
KD: Do you have any advice for someone who may be interested in starting their own business in the art world?
TY: For starting a business in any industry, I feel like you must ask yourself: ‘How am I going to stand out? And how am I going to keep pushing myself?’ which I think is hard. There were so many times that I wanted to give up. It's so much easier to find a job working for someone else and having security and stable income. Also, you have to accept loneliness as an entrepreneur - you can have friends and family who support you but at the end of the day, it's just you and your business and only you know if you're doing it right. It's a very lonely path and I don't want to sugarcoat it. Lastly, always have the mindset to be able to change. I think if you can change your idea or refine it and are willing to try everything to find out what works, you will be successful. Don't get stuck on your original idea just because you're already doing it. If I had stuck with my original idea of renting props, I don’t think I would be where I am today.
Thank you, Tracy.
Images courtesy of SWAP UP ART and Tracy Yuan.
Check out the SWAP UP ART website and Instagram @swapupart.
Kelsey Dickinson,
Contributor, MADE IN BED