In a city like New York, art surrounds you. It’s not just in museums and art galleries but also on building facades, sidewalk sheds, and now, inside a vending machine. By putting a twist on your average vending machine, Mystry Mart provides an imaginative experience for buyers and gives exposure to local artists. The machine is filled with pieces of art wrapped in paper and labeled with a glowing question mark. The buyer doesn’t know what they’ll get, but they can count on it being one-of-a-kind.
Photo Courtesy of Victoria Orlovskaya
Painted by artist C1MAH, the Mystry Mart machine contains a wide variety of small art pieces in disguise including zines, jewelry, paintings, keychains, prints, tiny sculptures, and more. Mystery packages range in price from $5 to $100. You’ll find the first Mystry Mart inside Brooklyn Art Cave, a gallery in Bushwick.
Founder Victoria Orlovskaya was inspired to create Mystry Mart after a visit with her partner, Eugene Bell, to Area 15, an immersive entertainment and events district in Las Vegas, Nevada. There they encountered an art vending machine for the first time. They had never seen anything like it in New York, so they decided to bring the concept back to the East Coast.
Orlovskaya believes in the work of underappreciated creatives throughout the city and wants to give them the spotlight. “By creating Mystry Mart, we are giving our community talent a platform to highlight their work. That’s our mission, to give people the chance to showcase their art and give them the exposure they deserve,” Orlovskaya shared with Untapped New York.
The vending machine contains work from 20 small artists who live across all five boroughs. By removing the “e’ in “mystery,” the name contains the phrase “try art.” This message, and the accessible price point of items inside, exemplify the company’s mission to have art reach all audiences.
Photo Courtesy of Victoria Orlovskaya
Another Mystry Mart is set to appear in the Brooklyn Museum this fall. There, even more creatives will have the chance to have their work discovered. Orlovskaya hopes the machines will one day spread across New York state and beyond.
“For the future, we aspire for Mystry Mart to become a well-known name and staple in the art community nationwide,” Orlovskaya shares, “yet our ultimate goal is for the creatives we work with to outshine our own recognition.”
