
Founded in 2025 by artist and curator Shelly Floyd, The Art Suite is a 100% woman owned contemporary art gallery built around a different way of experiencing art.

Rather than following the traditional gallery model, The Art Suite creates immersive activations that bring fine art into exceptional spaces, including luxury hotels, penthouses, and event spaces. At the heart of the gallery is a belief in genuine, collaborative conversations and building trust directly between artists and collectors.

For The Art Suite, the experience of collecting art should feel personal, approachable, and connected to the spaces where people actually live and gather.

CocoAI Spotlight Campaign (5).jpg

#### A Focus on Contemporary Abstraction and Sculpture

The Art Suite's curatorial programme centres on contemporary abstraction and sculptural expression, with a particular interest in materiality, form, presence, and texture.

The gallery's selections range from acrylic abstract canvas paintings to complex fibre sculptures. While the mediums and approaches may vary, the works share an emphasis on visual impact and emotional resonance.

The goal is to present pieces that have a quiet power within residential and commercial environments, allowing collectors to experience how artwork can shape and transform a space.


CocoAI Spotlight Campaign.jpg

#### Artists With Distinctive Points of View

The Art Suite champions both Texas-based and international artists, bringing together practices that explore different approaches to abstraction, portraiture, sculpture, pop art, and material experimentation.

Shelly Floyd's own practice centres on **Foldism**, a process involving bold, abstract, three-dimensional artworks made from paint skins. By transforming paint into sculptural forms, her work challenges traditional ideas of what a painting can be.

Scott Hovis creates captivating portraits through layers of gestural paint, drips, and vivid markings, creating expressive works with a strong sense of movement and energy.

Karin Tuck Petersen works with delicate fibre sculptures that interweave vintage beads, wood, and wire. Her work uses these materials to challenge empty space and explore the relationship between structure and openness.

Kristin Ruscher brings a playful sense of nostalgia to the gallery through her Saturday Mornings Cereal Collection. Featuring miniature people swimming in milk, the whimsical pop-art series draws on childhood memories and familiar moments while transforming them into unexpected scenes.

Together, these artists reflect The Art Suite's interest in distinctive works that create a strong visual and emotional presence.

#### Bringing Art Into Everyday Spaces

The Art Suite's approach to exhibiting art is closely connected to its vision for the collector experience.

The gallery aims to merge art, interior design, and hospitality, moving away from the intimidating atmosphere that can sometimes surround high end art buying. Instead, collectors are encouraged to experience artwork within environments that feel familiar and lived-in.

The gallery's philosophy is simple: art should feel **"less intimidating and more like coming home."**

This means considering how a work changes throughout the day, how it responds to natural light, and how it interacts with the routines and atmosphere of a space. Rather than viewing artwork in isolation, collectors can begin to imagine how it might naturally belong within their own environment.

The gallery also offers opportunities for original commissions, allowing collectors to explore variations in size, colour, or shape when looking for something specific.


CocoAI Spotlight Campaign (4).jpg

#### Connecting With Collectors Through Cohart
Physical experiences remain an important part of The Art Suite's approach, including its curated showcase at the Affordable Art Fair Austin, where the gallery presented its artists and attracted attention from collectors.

Digital discovery offers another way to extend these relationships.

Through Cohart, The Art Suite can give collectors the opportunity to virtually browse and securely purchase available works while discovering more about the artists behind them. The platform also reflects the gallery's belief in creating direct, conversational connections between artists, galleries, and collectors.

For The Art Suite, Cohart's all-in-one platform also supports the practical side of building a gallery. With its website, contact management, email marketing, artists, and inventory brought together in one place, the platform provides the tools needed to continue growing its collector community.


CocoAI Spotlight Campaign (3).jpg

#### A Gallery Built Around Connection

At its core, The Art Suite is interested in changing how people experience and collect contemporary art.

By bringing artwork into exceptional spaces and creating environments that feel more personal, the gallery encourages collectors to experience art as part of everyday life rather than something that exists separately from it.

Its focus on contemporary abstraction, sculpture, materiality, and texture is matched by a focus on relationships: between artists and collectors, between artwork and space, and between the gallery and the communities it serves.

For The Art Suite, the future of collecting is not only about finding a piece you love. It is about creating an experience where that piece feels like it belongs.

The Art Suite: Where Art, Space, and Connection Meet

Related Post

Spotlight: Andrés Rave on Interconnectivity, Identity, and Belonging

Editor's Eye on November

Collector Diaries: with Terrell Estime

Paper Drop: Jack Carden's Provocative Take on Art

17 Artists We're Excited to See at the Reno Tahoe International Art Show 2025

Spotlight: Gome Alon on Capturing the Essence of Everyday Objects

Editor's Eye on May

Editor's Eye on February

Amy Sherald: The Power of Letting the Work Speak

Editor's Picks: Boston Affordable Art Fair

Subscribe to our newsletter