NEW YORK, NY.- Artfizz, a new community-driven online ecosystem for contemporary art, launches today. Artfizz will offer simple and empowering experiences for both sellers and buyers, working to lower the barriers to entry for collecting art and building an interactive community of artists, collectors and art lovers. Together, they will create a new ecosystem of buying, selling and appreciating art: sellers will curate their own auctions, buyers will follow their own eyes and hearts, and artists will always directly benefit from the resale of their work. For every aftermarket sale on the Artfizz platform, Artfizz will pay 50% of its commission to the artist - an unprecedented and unique model in the current art market landscape.

Matthew Dipple, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Artfizz, who has worked closely with artists for over twenty years as an assistant, studio manager, gallerist and producer, Vaid, ³For many artists, navigating the highs and lows of producing work and earning money is nothing short of an endurance sport. "It's one reason we want to always factor artissts into what we do at Artfizz. The first step towards that is rethinking secondary market sales. Artists should profit from the entire lifespan of an artwork. It happens in other creative industries - why not the art world? Our artist royalty system is our answer to this and one small step towards rethinking longtime industry norms we feel are outmoded. The community at Artfizz leads the way, and artists play a central role in that community. We are not a conventional auction house, and we are not interested in telling people what or when to buy. Our platform is a space for people to have fun and love art. We are not interested in an art world dictated by market trends and led by a few elite players. At Artfizz, buyers, sellers, artists and aficionados will all interact directly, guiding each other and Artfizz on how the platform grows and evolves.´

Any registered user can list any artwork without paying a listing fee or shipping the work to Artfizz, so long as the work is by one of the more than 20,000 artists pre approved by Artfizz. The list of artists will grow over time with suggestions and feedback from Artfizz users. Unlike many other traditional and online auction platforms, sellers on Artfizz will have more flexibility to design and customize their listings, including choosing the listing's estimate and documentation. Sellers will be able to submit artworks any time they want, and the entire process from initial submission to final listing will take no more than two weeks. In addition to the traditional incremental bidding format, sellers can choose to list works as 'Buy It Now', in which registered users can buy the work for the list price or make an offer, or as a sealed-bid auction, where all bids will be private and only the winning bidder and the seller will know the final sale price. Each auction will be live for bidding for five days following a two-day preview period.

Once the listing is live for bidding, potential buyers can interact with the seller, as well as the rest of the Artfizz community by posting images and comments on the artwork in a designated public comments section. Artists are also invited to register on Artfizz to engage in conversations about their work directly with the Artfizz community. This dynamic forum will allow users to share their love of an artist or their work, exchange information and opinions, and make new and informed discoveries. The highest bidder at the end of the auction will pay a 15% commission fee to Artfizz and will be connected directly to the seller to complete the transaction and shipping process. 50% of commission revenue that Artfizz receives will be paid directly to the artist.

Artfizz will roll out new features in April, including Artfizz Projects and Artfizz TV, which will create additional opportunities for artists to engage directly with their audiences. More information on both projects will be released in the coming weeks.