Behold Art. Behold, The Beholder

The Beholder is a fabulous online art gallery which was conceptualized and created by Suzanne Shade. Suzanne's idea being to bring artists and collectors together online, outside the traditional gallery system. These are artists seeking to connect with a larger audience; collectors seeking new artists. A natural match. There are full-time artists, artists with day jobs, and probably, artists hoping to quit their day jobs. The Beholder represents a wide range of mediums, and prices, for first time collectors and those looking to make additions to their growing collections. If you're feeling trepidatious about putting your foot in the collectors collective, they offer seven day trial periods, so you can view the art in your surroundings and see if it feels at home. Sign up via email to be notified once a month when new artists are added to the site. I've put together some of my favorite pieces, but don't just trust me. Art is so subjective and these samples simply represent what called out to me. See what calls out to you. You may be a collector soon enough.

*Painting upper left by Anna Ura.

Ian Dingman graduated from Illinois State University in 2001 with a B.A. in Art. In Ian's work, themes of humor, melancholy and season can all be found to complement one another, whether it be in subject matter, handling of paint or simplicity of composition. He lives and works in New York, dividing his studio time between painting and reading.


Kari Orvik moved to the Bay Area from Alaska. After receiving her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Stanford University, she spent a year living and teaching in Krakow, Poland, while taking courses in photography at the Academy of Fine Arts. Since then she has returned to live and work in San Francisco.


Marci Washington grew up moving all over the Bay Area and received her BFA in painting and drawing from the California College of Arts in 2002. Her work has been exhibited nationally as well as abroad. She is 25 and currently lives and works in Oakland, California.










When Rachel Salomon was very young, she spent afternoons with her grandmother surrounded by her Japanese art, mid-century modern furniture and books about painters whose tastes greatly influenced her aesthetic development. When she got older, she studied fine art at Brown University, and illustration at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Since 2002 she has resided in Brooklyn, New York.


Trained as a city planner, Marc Babsin is fascinated by the urban. His work is about the surprise that one encounters in built environments. He goes out at night, when the people are long gone; using long exposures, colors arise and a sense of place takes form.


Juliette Borda's consistently award-winning gouache paintings are really small. She has made illustrations for a range of different magazines such as The New Yorker, Playboy and Town and Country. Juliette's paintings have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn NY.









Katja Ollendorff learned the traditional handcrafts of embroidery, knitting and needlepoint at a young age in Germany. Today, she combines a folk art appeal with a modern aesthetic to create interesting peices that surprise the viewer at close range.







Charlotta Hauksdóttir has an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and previously studied in Rome at the Istituto Europeo di Design. She has participated in several exhibitions in Rome, San Francisco, and in Reykjavík, where she is originally from.


Katy Horan lives in Brooklyn, NY. She went to the Rhode Island School of Design, where she received a BFA in Illustration in 2003. She makes paintings mainly inspired by folktales and good music.












Colby Bird constructs and photographs still lives that mimic casual snapshots. Domesticated animals, household carpet, stereo equipment and other various middle-class accoutrements form an idyllic, if dirty, suburban fantasy world.