Software for solo artists and studios that take their practice seriously

What artists actually need software for

A solo studio practice has the same five core needs as a small gallery, with different defaults: catalogue every work (with provenance and edition info), keep a real collector list, send work to galleries and fairs, sell editions and merchandise directly, and run a public website that the artist controls without a webmaster.

The tools artists usually reach for fail in predictable ways. Squarespace makes a beautiful site that knows nothing about the inventory. Mailchimp keeps the collector list but cannot link a collector to a work. A spreadsheet works for one year and breaks the second time the artist needs to remember which collector bought which 4/10.

The five workflows for a working studio

Independent artists who run their practice well share the same operational habits, regardless of medium or career stage.

• Catalogue every work as it leaves the studio. Title, dimensions, medium, edition info, primary photo. The five-second discipline that pays back for years. See How to catalogue artwork professionally.
• Track every collector who has bought, even one work. Name, contact, what they bought, when. The list is the artist's most under-valued asset.
• Track consignments to galleries. Which gallery has which works, on what split, until when. See Consignment management.
• Sell editions and books directly. Stripe-backed payment links for studio sales, with the artwork details on the receipt.
• Run a public site on the artist's own domain. Artist statement, CV, current work, exhibitions. See Gallery website builder — the same Website Studio works for solo artists.

Where the artist-specific tools fall short

Several products specifically target solo artists (Artwork Archive, Artlogic Artist, ArtCloud Artist editions). They tend to handle the catalogue well and stop short of the public site, the email campaigns to collectors, and serious Stripe-backed direct sales. The result is the artist running three tools (their artist software, Squarespace, Mailchimp) and copy-pasting between them.

Art.industries on Core ($15/month) covers the inventory, CRM, and Stripe sale flows; on Advanced ($40/month) adds the public website on the artist's own domain and email campaigns. One platform; no copy-pasting.

A real flow: a print edition launch from a 2-person studio

A working artist releases a new 1/50 edition of a screen print. Here is the flow on Art.industries.

1. The edition is catalogued in the Inventory: one work record, 50 edition copies, full details, primary image, edition price.
2. The work is published to the artist's Website Studio site and to the public storefront. 50 copies show as available.
3. A campaign goes to the artist's collector list (a real segment in the CRM), with a one-image email and a link to the storefront page.
4. In the first 24 hours, 18 copies sell via Stripe checkout. Each sale ties the buyer to the specific edition copy; the artist sees the names, not just a Stripe transaction list.
5. Over the next month, the rest of the edition sells. Two galleries the artist is consigned with each take three copies; their consignments are updated; the artist's statement view shows the full picture.

How Art.industries handles studio practice

The system's defaults adapt for solo studios: simpler permission model (typically the artist plus an assistant or studio manager), edition copies as first-class units (because most studio sales are editions), and a single-consignor mental model (the artist themselves) for primary studio sales, alongside any external gallery consignments.

Direct collector sales (without a gallery in between) work the same as gallery sales: a viewing room for a serious collector, a Stripe payment link for a fast deposit, a real invoice for the balance. The collector has the same experience they would have buying through a gallery.

The artist's public website is a real site (not a portfolio template) on the artist's own domain. Updates to the inventory propagate to the site automatically; nothing needs a webmaster.

When the studio scales to assistants and gallery representation

A studio that grows from one artist to two assistants, then signs with a primary gallery, then expands to two galleries in different territories, does not need to switch platforms. Permissions on the workspace let the assistant edit inventory but not invoicing; the gallery can be granted view-only access to the consignment of works it represents; territory-level co-representation works the same way the artist database handles it for galleries.

Most artists who outgrow a basic spreadsheet setup find Art.industries fits at the moment they hire the first assistant or sign the first gallery; the workspace model is built for collaboration rather than single-user.

Pricing for working artists

Core ($15/month or $150/year) covers a solo artist with up to a few hundred works, Stripe-backed direct sales, private viewing rooms, and consignment tracking with up to a couple of galleries.

Advanced ($40/month or $400/year) is the right plan for a working studio with a public site, email campaigns to collectors, and a public storefront for editions. This is what most full-time professional artists use.

Max ($200/month) is rarely needed for a single-artist studio; it makes sense for foundation-managed estates, multi-artist collectives, or studios with very high inventory volumes (3,000+ works in active rotation).