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An Art Show in LA Brings Open Studios to Livestream Shopping
Decerry Donato
Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
Last week, Los Angeles-based livestream shopping platform NTWRK collaborated with Known Gallery to host a two-day digital art fair. Similar to other livestream shopping, NTWRK only sells exclusive and designer items, some of which can be worth several thousand dollars. Unlike other livestream shopping platforms, NTWRK also stores the livestream video on the app for others to view later.
The lineup was curated by street art veteran Casey Zoltan and directed by mixed media artist Phil Frost and featured an array of L.A.-based artists including OG Slick, husband and wife duo DabsMyla and Joshua Vides. Other artists that were part of the lineup included Andrew Schoultz, Hueman, Askew, Nychos, 13thWitness and Shepard Fairey, creator of the OBEY brand, among others.
Photo by Decerry Donato
In the span of two days, each artist went live on the NTWRK app and showcased their collection and talked about their background. During this time, viewers and fans who were interested in purchasing any of the art pieces would go through a live-bidding process with other buyers.
The auction for each item would last several minutes and some artists also offered a "buy it now" feature for some of their smaller art pieces. The virtual show gave insight into the future of selling art with most of the artists going live in their own art studio. Others like OG Slick, however, got creative and drove around in their car to show viewers the murals they painted.
For the show, Fairey painted four OBEY art pieces that included the infamous icon face created specifically for the event—each of which sold for $5,000. Vides, a much younger artist, had a few hand painted skate decks for sale starting at $1,500 and the items that didn’t sell are still available for purchase on the app.
Similar to WhatNot’s format, viewers that tuned in to any of the artists’ livestreams also had the opportunity to interact and chat with some of their favorite artists in real time. Fans primarily focused their feedback on how excited they were for these collector’s items exclusive to NTWRK and the Known Gallery. Other viewers that tuned in were also chatting and responding to people who were new to the platform and gave them a rundown of how the auction went.
One fan told DabsMyla, “Love you guys so much. Met you at your Technicolor show and it was amazing.”
Since its launch in 2018, NTWRK has also created exclusive content with artists like Takashi Murakami and has collaborated with featured hosts like Billie Eilish, DJ Khaled, Odell Beckham Jr., Blake Griffin, Jonah Hill, Doja Cat and other prominent figures.
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Decerry Donato
Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
Bird’s SPAC Deal is Done: First Day on the NYSE Ends Virtually Flat
02:36 PM | November 05, 2021
Bird, the Santa Monica-based firm that makes and rents electric scooters, ended its first full day as a publicly traded company with its stock price up by a fraction of a percent at $8.40 per share.
By merging with Switchback II, a special purpose acquisition company, Bird skipped the traditional IPO process to list on the New York Stock Exchange. Now closed, the deal put a combined $414 million in cash and credit at the scooter company's disposal — minus fees related to the merger, Bird said on Friday.
The SPAC deal originally valued Bird at around $2.3 billion.
Now trading under the ticker "BRDS," Bird CEO Travis VanderZanden said in a statement that the funds will fuel its growth and further its mission of providing "environmentally friendly transportation for everyone." Bird plops rentable scooters on sidewalks in more than 350 cities.
Bird's revenue plummeted at the onset of the pandemic, as lockdowns confined commuters to their homes, but the company recently reported a rebound in revenue and declining losses for its second fiscal quarter of 2021.
While Bird leads the pack on scooter rentals, its competitor Lime revealed today that it raised $523 million from investors ahead of a possible public debut next year.
Why "BRDS"? Earlier this week, footwear company Allbirds started trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol "BIRD," perhaps beating Bird to the punch. Bird did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Friday energy Today was electric for the @BirdRide listing Come take a ride behind the scenes of all the action $BRDSpic.twitter.com/9KMjBLzpHP— NYSE \ud83c\udfdb (@NYSE \ud83c\udfdb) 1636137781
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Harri Weber
Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.
More SPAC Action: Tech Company Using Gravity to Store Energy Inks $1.6 Billion Deal
12:56 PM | September 09, 2021
Energy Vault, a startup that uses gravity and composite blocks heavier than a school bus to store renewable energy, plans to go public in a $1.6 billion merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The combined entity — consisting of the Westlake Village, Calif.-based clean energy startup and a shell company called Novus Capital Corp. II — aims to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "GWHR." The companies expect the deal to close during the first quarter of 2022.
Energy Vault's tech was developed to help utilities "solve the problem of power intermittency that is inherent with wind and solar energy generation," said Robert Piconi, the clean energy company's CEO and co-founder in an announcement of the deal.
In its search for a business to take public, Novus CEO Robert Laikin said the blank-check firm "looked at over 100 companies."
Earlier this year, another SPAC set up by Laikin took AppHarvest public. The firm builds gigantic greenhouses and was at one point valued at $1 billion. AppHarvest's market cap currently hovers around $770 million.
These mergers are part of a larger trend that has drawn scrutiny from regulators, shareholders and lawmakers alike. Sen. John Kennedy introduced a bill earlier this year that would force SPACs to be more transparent with investors. "It's right and fair that a SPAC should disclose how its sponsors get paid and how that affects the value of its public shares," the Senator argued. "The Sponsor Promote and Compensation Act would require this kind of transparency," he added.
What is a SPAC?
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