Spacey Is Selling Exclusive, Limited-Edition Art at Mass-Printed-Poster Prices

There are a whole bunch of places to buy affordable art online, but Kate Hoffman, on the hunt for artwork after moving in with her boyfriend, still had trouble finding the right piece at the right price. "We had ordered a Casper mattress, I had a suitcase from Away coming, I had bought Parachute sheets. All of these experiences were beautifully curated, with beautiful brand stories and this modern, seamless shopping experience," she recalls. Overwhelmed by scrolling through thousands of artworks at incomprehensibly wide-ranging prices, Kate longed for a retailer with a similar strategy to those other start-ups. So much so, she decided to do something about it just three weeks later.

While still working her day job, Kate began planning her own take on the "cool artwork for less" website, which she named Spacey. "My major in college was marketing—I went to the School of Business at George Washington University—and I minored in art history and fine arts. I’ve always loved art and been surrounded by art," she says. "With my background in storytelling, marketing, and art, it felt like this was what I was meant to pursue." By the time summer arrived last year, she was working on Spacey full-time.

While Kate acknowledges there are other websites already selling beautiful art that won't break the bank, she sees them as targeted toward customers who already have an idea of what they want to buy. Spacey, on the other hand, is for the total newbie. "It's about going beyond decorating or investing and figuring out an experience that helps you connect with art on an emotional level," she says. "It's finding ways to curate this art scene that isn’t stuffy or based off of wealth, but based off of excitement. It's offering those accessible prices but still having that curated experience."

Essentially, Kate wants to make buying affordable art buzz-worthy, just like the museum-quality stuff. How? Each season, Kate will ask a handful of artists to create one-of-a-kind works for Spacey—and only make 25 prints of each. The themed collection will be available for just a few months, further fueling a "get it while you still can" sense of urgency. At that point, Spacey will debut a new group of featured artists, along with a new theme that ties the works together.

March 5 marked Spacey's official launch. If you visit the site right this second, you'll find 48 works by 16 different artists. All of them lean modern in style, and all of them are all connected to the theme "Peace of Mind," which Kate chose because of the world's obsession with all things wellness as of late.

Doing the printing, framing, and shipping in-house is what helps Spacey offer these prints, available in three standard sizes, for budget-friendly prices we can get behind. A framed 8x10" print is always $150, a framed 16x20" print is always $225, and a framed 24x30" print is always $375, regardless of artist or type of artwork (and those prices are even lower if you opt to forgo a frame). When it comes to shipping, fees vary by the artwork's size, but never top $20 for national and $55 for international. Not bad Spacey, not bad. Now seems like a good time to remind you that the clock is ticking on this first collection. . . .