For many artists, photographers and galleries, the Instagram grid is now the formal portfolio, and Stories are where the real day-to-day happens: studio previews, half-finished pieces, opening-night snapshots, behind-the-scenes clips of an installation going up, and last-minute announcements about a pop-up sale. They vanish after 24 hours, which is exactly what makes them feel candid.

That candour also makes Stories worth following closely. A curator keeping an eye on emerging talent, a collector watching for a new series, a journalist covering the local scene and an artist curious about what peers are exhibiting all have good reasons to look. The catch is that Instagram shows every logged-in viewer by name.

Stories as the new studio visit

A decade ago, seeing an artist’s work in progress meant a studio visit or a well-timed conversation at an opening. Today, much of that informal access lives in Stories. Artists share the messy middle of their process there: colour tests, sketches, failed attempts, the moment a large canvas is finally stretched. Galleries use Stories to tease shows weeks before the press release and to document install days that never make it to the grid.

For anyone who follows art seriously, this is valuable context. It shows how an artist thinks, how quickly a body of work is developing and which collaborations are forming. It also explains why so many people in the art world now check Stories as routinely as they once read listings.

Why viewers sometimes prefer to stay unseen

There is nothing sinister about it. A curator may not want to signal interest before a studio visit is arranged, because a name in the viewer list can raise expectations. A gallery researching a potential collaboration may prefer to look before reaching out. A collector may not want an artist’s team to see them checking every day ahead of a release. And plenty of people simply like to browse without adding to someone’s view count.

Looking without logging in

Instagram records a Story view only when a signed-in account loads it. Tools that let you view Instagram stories anonymously take advantage of that: you enter a username, and the tool displays the current Stories, Highlights, Reels and posts without you signing in to Instagram. Nothing is installed and no account is involved.

InstaSPY is one such tool. It runs in any browser, needs no Instagram account, and keeps a profile’s Stories, Highlights, Reels and posts in one place, which makes it easy to scan an artist’s recent output in a single sitting.

For people who follow a handful of artists or venues closely, it can also send an alert when a tracked profile posts a new Story. That is useful for limited-time announcements such as studio sales, print drops or private-view invitations, which often appear only in Stories and are gone the next day.

Its Instagram follow tracker shows which accounts an artist or gallery has recently followed, and can alert you when they follow someone new. In the art world that is often an early hint of a new collaboration, a residency or a representation deal.

It is also the only service that brings all three together: watching a profile anonymously, getting notified when someone posts a new Story without following them, and knowing, with an alert, when an account follows someone new.

How collectors and curators use it in practice

• Tracking a series. Turn on Story alerts for an artist and see each new piece as it is shared, rather than catching a few by chance.


• Watching a scene. Follow a small set of galleries and project spaces to see which artists keep appearing across their Stories.


• Spotting connections early. Use the follow tracker to see when an artist starts following a gallery, a curator or a fellow artist.


• Preparing for a visit. Review an artist’s Highlights before a studio visit so the conversation starts from their recent work.

What it cannot do

The limits are straightforward and worth stating plainly:

• It shows what is currently available. Expired Stories that were not saved to Highlights are gone.


• It is for viewing. An artist’s work belongs to the artist, and reposting or reusing it without permission is not acceptable.

A small shift in how art is followed

The way people follow artists has moved from newsletters and gallery mailing lists to a stream of short-lived updates. Tools that let you keep up with that stream on your own terms are a natural response. Used with the same respect you would bring to a gallery visit, they simply make it easier to look closely, enjoy the work, and leave it where you found it.