Visual artists see red as Silicon Valley rental service accused of losing artwork

Some visual artists are seeing a vibrant shade of crimson over the behavior of a San Francisco startup called GetArtUp that they have accused of mislaying and mishandling their work while renting it out to Silicon Valley royalty.

GetArtUp is a subscription service for businesses and wealthy San Franciscans who want to rent artwork by the month or buy it outright via the company’s website. Artists said they saw the service as a way of getting exposure in a city full of potential buyers. But a number of them expressed serious concerns about payment and the treatment of their works. The company said it was working on an “amicable solution” and was a “huge supporter” of the artistic community.

Jenny Odell, a digital artist who teaches at Stanford, made five pieces that she said were initially installed in 2012 at a self-described “hero accelerator” called TheGlint, a San Francisco mansion that housed young tech entrepreneurs, some of whom were backed by Peter Thiel, the Facebook and PayPal billionaire.

Odell claims that three of the works from the installation at TheGlint were never returned and now she doesn’t know where they are. “Last I heard, some of it was at a place called Urban Airship, but I think they moved offices,” she told the Guardian. One of the pieces, 77 Waste Ponds, is still pictured on the GetArtUp homepage.

This month, Odell told founder Tricia Rampe she “considered the work stolen” and would file a police report and hire a lawyer. “I don’t mean to be dramatic, but at the end of the day I am an artist and this is my livelihood,” Odell wrote to Rampe in an email forwarded to the Guardian. “And frankly, this has just gone on for too long.” Then she posted to Tumblr and Twitter, warning other artists away from Rampe and GetArtUp.

Sam Fuchs, an artist who was told in September 2013 that his piece The Beach was close to a sale through GetArtUp, told the Guardian he hasn’t seen the piece or any money since Rampe gave him the news. “She emailed me saying she had a buyer ready to buy it,” he said. But conversations stalled and he gave up asking. “Tricia clearly wasn’t planning on returning the piece or money anytime soon,” he said. “It’s not like I pressed her every day about where the piece was, or our money. Problem is, she still has the damn thing! Or a cool $1,000 in her pocket.”

Other artists had similar stories.

• Photographer JR Doty said she was troubled by Rampe’s treatment of her artwork and claimed she’d seen Rampe “throw shit in the back of her truck with nothing. I’m the one who told her to put in cardboard between the pieces at the very least.”
• Doty also claimed she had left 21 pieces with Rampe and that five of them were missing when she asked for them back after none were sold or rented. Rampe said she had “just placed them”, according to Doty, who said she was paid $137.50 for those placements. She claimed she had not been given a breakdown of how that number was calculated. Rampe paid for a further two pieces that she had sold.
• Amanda Lucia Côté said Rampe renamed her work “Assemblage” without permission, made up the size, and increased the list price.

Rampe emailed Odell last Wednesday: “We suggest removing the tweets and also the blog post in the meantime until we can sort all this out,” she wrote in an email. “Our lawyer Patrick is cc’d here.” Rampe went on to tell Odell how much she regretted supporting her and “tirelessly showing up for your work the way I did”.

“I have to check what we have had in past or present but I know for certain you are grossly mistaken on the inventory as well as the amount of money you claim you are owed as well. It is considered defamatory when you state untruths about a company or person publicly,” Rampe wrote.

Odell said she’d been confused and initially invoiced Rampe for $4,200 from a list of her works for sale and lease on GetArtUp, which turned out to include work already returned to her. GetArtUp took down the listings for all Odell’s work and said she would be paid $920. Odell had sought $2,400 for the three pieces she believes to be in GetArtUp’s possession.

In the same email, Odell was asked to “delete any negative FB messages/blogs/tweets about our company and sign a release we will send? The release would just end any working relationship that has existed previously. Let us know, we’ll send it then sign the release, and also we’ll get a payment sent to you today/tonight.”

In an email, the company said: “As a company we’re working on resolving any specific matters with the artist, and hope to have an amicable solution very soon. We are working with our attorney, not because we’re taking legal action, but because we want a solution that’s fair and is far removed from any heated debates on social media or media stories. We’re huge supporters of the artist community and will do everything in our power to promote their works and ensure they’re well compensated for the work they create.”

Not everyone’s relationship with the company has been unpleasant: “My experience with GetArtUp has been great so far,” said Jen Hansen, a painter whose work is available on the GetArtUp site. Hansen said she hadn’t been paid yet, but that she’d been recommended to the company by a friend “who has been pretty successful”.