"This Artist's Paintings Are Hot, Where Did You Buy Them?"... Shh! Only 15,000 Won Needed

[Solution Report] The Secret of 'Painting Subscription' Dreaming of Becoming the Netflix of the Art World
Interview with Jin Junhwa, CEO of Painting Subscription Platform Pinzzle
Popular as an 'Interior Service' That Transforms Spaces Monthly with Trendy Art Styles

Jin Junhwa, CEO of Pinsle, which introduced the world's first 'art subscription' service, emphasized, "Art should be consumed within a licensing framework that allows it to be easily enjoyed like music or movies." Photo by Yoon Jin-geun PD

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] #. Park Yesul (pseudonym), who has been employed for three years, recently moved out from her parents' home and rented a studio apartment near her company. Looking for a painting to fill the empty walls of her first personal space, Park gave up on purchasing original artworks due to their high prices and the burden of rentals, until she discovered the ‘art subscription’ service. The cost of receiving one printed artwork per month from foreign artists not previously introduced in Korea is about 15,000 KRW per month. Now in her third month of subscribing, Park says she feels refreshed as she changes the atmosphere of her home with new paintings every month.

The idea for Pinzzle, the first company in the world to introduce an ‘art subscription’ service, originated from home decoration. CEO Jin Junhwa explained, “While looking into purchasing paintings for our newlywed home interior, I noticed the high prices and low accessibility, which led me to conceive this business,” accurately addressing the interior concerns of one- to two-person households.

The domestic art market in Korea is valued at 500 billion KRW, but the channels for consumers to purchase artworks that reflect their personal tastes remain limited and costly. CEO Jin emphasized, “The reason the art market has not grown larger is due to the failure of gallery-centered distribution. Just as music, movies, and books have explosively grown by moving to easily consumable licensed frameworks, art must also expand its consumption and distribution as a lifestyle business.”

Pinzzle provides new works by foreign artists not yet introduced in Korea every month. Photo by Pinzzle

Pinzzle provides new artworks every month from foreign artists not yet introduced in Korea. Regarding the criteria for selecting artists, CEO Jin said, “We find artists that match our taste on Behance (a global portfolio site for artists), then check their Instagram accounts to quantitatively assess followers and likes to gauge public response. We then send proposal emails to these artists, explaining that we are a company distributing artworks in Korea and inviting them to collaborate.” Initially, recruiting artists was challenging. However, as Pinzzle approached artists with sincerity, most began to respond, and as references accumulated, recruitment has been progressing smoothly.

Is introducing a new artist every month a demanding task? CEO Jin replied, “It is our principle to keep subscribers feeling refreshed through art subscription. For example, if we selected a calm painting last month, we send a vibrant one this month to balance the curation’s intensity.” The artists introduced in this way transfer their copyrights to Pinzzle free of charge, and Pinzzle promotes the artists and their works through the subscription service while generating revenue. Since a portion of the product sales revenue is shared with the artists, the interests of artists wanting to introduce themselves to the Korean market and Pinzzle needing new artworks align perfectly.

The magazine provided along with the paintings is also receiving positive feedback. CEO Jin said, “Since Pinzzle’s artists are being introduced in Korea for the first time, we wanted to convey the unique feelings of the artists and their artistic worlds to subscribers and foster a connection. We are dedicated to expanding understanding beyond simply providing artworks by focusing on the artists as themes.” Pinzzle visits artists in person after accumulating 3 to 4 artists per continent, conducting in-depth interviews and obtaining their works.

Pinzzle Company Information. Graphic by Designer Jin-kyung Lee

Currently holding licenses for about 600 artworks, Pinzzle is also expanding into artist agency services. “We have 25 exclusive artists whose sales and marketing we handle. Since we are the only agency specializing exclusively in foreign artists, discovering and introducing new artists is inevitable for expanding our lineup,” CEO Jin emphasized.

Regarding concerns from some in the art world that sending new printed artworks monthly might negatively impact the original art market, CEO Jin stated, “The value of original artworks must be respected. However, our goal is to lower the high barrier that young generations feel toward the art market and to enable subscribers who find their taste through art subscription to own original works. We aspire to become a Netflix-like platform for the art world, where diverse artworks can be conveniently consumed at home as comfortably as watching movies.”