Contemporary artist Kristi Kohut is pushing sixteen thousand followers on her Instagram account. Her work has been featured in over seventy publications, including Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Forbes, and The "World of Interiors. She has hosted popup shops in the Hamptons and collaborated with big brands such as Anthropologie. Among her collectors are well-known entrepreneurs, Hall of Fame athletes, and magazine editors across four continents. Her waiting list for commissions is pushing into 2020 already. And yet she reinforces the idea that she does not fit the typical mold of an artist. She moves fast. She began building her brand from the ground up in 2014 when she turned her hobby into an art studio and business.
Today, Kohut's kaleidoscopic gemstone- and nature-inspired pieces are selling for more than twice what they did back then. The "slowmoving" art galleries that never seemed to get back to her when she was starting are now knocking on her digital door quite constantly. "It's all proof that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for artists;• Kohut confides. "For me, fine art and digital commerce go hand and hand. I'm happy being an outlier-or, more aptly, an artli.er."