We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Wren Sarrow. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Wren below.
Wren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
Anyone starting a new business is taking a risk. In the Financial industry, businesses are not often considered assets, they are expenses. When we were recently asked by our bank how much artHYPE was worth, I based it on the value of a small gallery that was recently sold, but that did not come close to including the value of the artwork we represent.
Passion for meaning and connection through great art and artists, is why we created artHYPE. For decades, the art world has eschewed meaning and nostalgia as not important, and emphasized solitary heroes as subjects and purveyors art. We have always valued relationships, connection, and collaboration, in art and in business, which is what motivates and propels us to take this business risk.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Wren Woodward Sarrow. I began creating artworks as a young girl, encouraged by my English parents; I learned traditional techniques and saw many original famous artworks at a young age. I recently saw an artist say, “Every painter wants to be Rembrandt,” which reminded me that Rembrandt is the painter who most moved my father. I don’t want to be another Rembrandt, but I do want to move people with artwork, and I have copied master painters to learn their techniques. I received an M.A. in Art History from The Ohio State University focusing on American and Contemporary Art, and later an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, majoring in Painting.
In 2018, I began recording conversations with artists using the name artHYPE and sharing them on YouTube, when I was President of TAG Gallery. I met Genesis Be that year, and she had begun painting “barriers” on canvas, after her Mississippi flag protest went viral. We collaborated for a year and then artHYPE curated her first solo show “People Not Things” which opened at TAG in March 2019. It was the first exhibition in TAG’s Members Curate program. Shortly after Genesis’ show, Sara Svetlana reached out and artHYPE organized her first L.A. solo show in September, followed by Debbie J.W. Lin in October of that same year. artHYPE We began looking for a gallery space.
Everyone in the art business knows how tough it is. I have studied how galleries form, how very established art dealers do business, and know how much social networks and luck play a part in keeping art businesses afloat. artHYPE ran three gallery venues in four years and closed every one of them by June 2022. During Covid-19, Van Nuys never opened, NoHo had a regular exhibition schedule from 2020 – 2022, our Pico venue had a wonderful Rebel Talent exhibition for one month, but we didn’t stay because of building issues. We moved back to NoHo until rental costs became prohibitive for us in 2022, and the Noho venue closed last June.
This past June, Genesis Be had fifteen paintings from her Brooklyn Art Haus “People Not Things” solo show enter esteemed public and private collections, which followed her most successful solo show in L.A. in October 2022, curated by artHYPE and organized by Aleph Studio. In August, artHYPE showed original artwork by Walt Wali Neil in the Sky Gallery at TAG, focusing on his public legacy. Barbara Fant shared her poetry at Wali’s reception, and LA Art Documents recorded the exhibition.
artHYPE’s strength and survival is our network of ambitious business leaders and families who support the artists we exhibit. artHYPE artists have recently shown in Los Angeles, New York, and Columbus, Ohio, and this is why we have continued to invest with great artists by establishing the artHYPE Foundation on August 2, 2023.
artHYPE promotes the artworks of authentic, talented under-represented artists with the motivation to exhibit and reach new audiences. We provide consultation on art practices and art purchases and a personal and meaningful collecting experience for artHYPE clients. We loan original art to invested partners. As a new addition to artHYPE’s mission, we are offering free, self-guided art instruction for children at TAG Gallery, Studio 03, in November 2023. This an investment in future innovation and imagination to help our country and world meet so many challenges creatively. For more information, contact wren@sarrowstudio.com for more information. Classes are forming now!
artHYPE has a strong partnership with TAG, The Artists Gallery. I have been managing TAG since August 2022, and I regularly show my own artwork in Studio 03, upstairs. The gallery hosts wonderful events each month. TAG has an ambitious exhibition schedule; five or six new solo or group exhibition each month, with two or more events. TAG Member, The Qwiett, and I recently recorded an art conversation, a collaboration with artHYPE. Painter Robert Zent Chew, President, along with digital artist Karen Hochman-Brown, Treasurer and mixed media artist Rhonda Burton, Vice President, oversee the gallery’s business. Gallerists Laila Alamiri (photographer) and Mark Bade (actor) keep TAG open Wednesday through Sunday every week, and Laila and Elyse Wyman and Members install TAG’s group exhibitions. Ernie Marjoram and Gary Polonsky take care of TAG operations. Karen Hochman-Brown and I collaborated on TAG’s Thirty-Year Anniversary logo, a thirty-pointed star.
artHYPE is a proud member of the Greater Miracle Mile Chamber of Commerce, and partners with 508 Gallery, in London, Dorrill Griffin Studios, local, and international journalists. Reggie Gooden is artHYPE’s Wali Neil Estate Partner, and Jonathan Sarrow is Vice President and Secretary, Portia Park, a “Miracle Mile” Realtor, is artHYPE’s Treasurer, Tisha Janigian of SHE IS HOPE Realty in Encino, specializing in the San Fernando Valley, and SHE IS HOPE LA Boutique. 360 Management officer Kymberli Hall just joined artHYPE’s Board of Directors.
artHYPE partners with SHE IS HOPE LA (sheishopela.org) to uplift Single Mother Families with peer support, mind body wellness, economic education, job training and placement, and a food bank. I serve as the Marketing Director and artHYPE promotes the Boutique’s artwork to support the SHE IS HOPE LA Boutique in Encino, artHYPE prints, and our GLIM products are available in the Boutique. Don’t miss SHE IS HOPE’s 5th Annual FUNdraiser at the Encino Golf Club November 5th! www.sheishopla.org.
I serve on the nonprofit board of the Sherman Oaks Chamber Foundation @LetsPaintShermanOaks for Utility Box painting, and have painted a box at Moorpark and Fulton, in the Valley.
artHYPE is excited to be showing artwork by Genesis Be and Walt Wali Neil at Parallax Art Fair in London, October 28 & 29, 2023. We are also rolling out the red carpet for artHYPE’s first FUNdraising Gala, at TAG Gallery, December 15th, 2023. Tickets are available at arthype.net. Reinvention is the theme that my neighbor and I came up with for a Gen X party to celebrate our peers starting new careers, about every two to five years, for most of our lives. Then a friend at our last event suggested we put together a Back to the 80s dance party. We are doing both December 15th! We are creating an event with a delicious sit-down dinner, a dancing party, a holiday silent auction, wine and beer, and five to seven original artworks for a Live Auction! Genesis Be is creating a painting for this event.
Sponsors are very much invited to partner with us to make this event a memorable experience! Fiscal sponsors will receive dinner tickets to entertain clients, select original artwork, benefit from socially impactful pre- and post-marketing opportunities, receive qualified media coverage, speaking opportunities, and future VIP event invitations. Email wren@arthype.net for artHYPE’s Sponsorship Benefits.
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
We use Squarespace and Stripe for our website sales. We like the aesthetics of Squarespace and its e-commerce platform; it integrates with MailChimp for email and newsletter updates. We’ve started using the Artwork Archive for artHYPE, and artworks can be linked to purchase on Squarespace. We use Ship Station to price and plan shipments. We like Stripe as our payment partner because they have set up a carbon capture feature so that 1% of all sales goes toward carbon-capturing tech. We sync Instagram with Facebook to save time posting to social media. With art-selling technology, our tools must be both affordable, intuitive, and, hopefully, integrated. We recommend Stripe because they make it easy for us to donate 1% of our proceeds to removing carbon removal technologies. One of our goals is to make artHYPE a B-Corp within five years.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
We met our artHYPE Partner Reggie Gooden when he moved to Los Angeles from Philadelphia for business and was dating our friend Stacey. We invited them to our home, they met our kids and our cat, and we really hit it off because we all love art and music. We also invited Reggie and Stacey and more friends over for an art video I made about people coming together despite political differences. Reggie and Jonathan created Artist Voice Media and released songs with the hip hop artist Desmond “Tru Def” Williams. Reggie and Stacey married, and in 2021 we travelled to Columbus, Ohio together to show Walt Wali Neil with the Maroon Arts Boxcar Gallery, along with Denise Neil, and many of Denise’s family members, including her sister Dr. Linda Goodrich, and other artists in the family including Rosesharon Oates and Dante Palayo. Reggie is featured in the LA Art Documents video about Walt Wali Neil’s Public Legacy Art Exhibition in Los Angeles this past August. Don’t forget to buy a ticket for our Back to the 80s Gala, there are only 250 available, only 50 available tickets for the dinner, and up to 200 for the party. https://artHYPE.net
Contact Info:
- Website: https://arthype.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arthypenow/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arthypenow
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wrensarrow/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/arthypenow
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@arthypenow/videos
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tag-gallery-los-angeles-2
Image Credits
Lori Hutchison Photography Tisha Janigian, SHE IS HOPE LA