If you’re looking for a platform to expand your online portfolio to the next level, it’s—surprise, surprise—the metaverse. Instead of making website visitors scroll through your work, they could even walk around galleries and see it up close.
This idea comes by way of Galeryst, a website that lets you build 3D virtual art galleries for free, making it possible for all creatives to put up work in a museum under their names—without sharing the space with anyone else. All they need is an Adobe Lightroom collection ready.
According to PetaPixel, the tool was created as a passion project by Microsoft technical program manager Michael Scherotter, who wanted a space to display his personal 30-year art collection. Galeryst was incepted during his sabbatical, which coincided with the pandemic, a downtime for the art world.
Creators can build a single 80-piece online gallery for free, with art or photos taking up to two wings. Beyond that, they can shell out US$4 a month for as many as five personal galleries and 5,760 images, and up to US$217 a year for 30 galleries and over 96,000 pictures.
Galeryst is compatible with Lightroom, so you can have a full gallery made simply by organizing your work in the Adobe app and uploading it as one collection. After which, users won’t just be able to navigate your 3D space through their mobile or desktop screens but also via virtual reality with their headsets.
“At Galeryst, we want to enable any artist to create a beautiful 3D virtual gallery online to share their artwork with the world. With a global pandemic shutting down in-person art galleries and exhibits for much of the world, I saw an opportunity,” describes Scherotter. Try it out here.