WHY SOOMI EXISTS
Built from direct experience with artists and exhibitions.
SOOMI helps independent artists turn artwork enquiries into collector relationships by keeping the person, artwork and next step together.
FROM DIRECT EXPERIENCE
A repeated problem across artists and exhibitions.
SOOMI was developed by Christos Markou, a business builder whose background spans media, technology, marketing and the creative industries. Over the past decade, he has founded and developed Arrival Gallery, Art Seen, Spreads Magazine and Dot Athena Studios, taking projects from early ideas into operating businesses.
Through international exhibitions, publishing and artist-focused projects, Christos has worked closely with artists from many countries. Again and again, he saw important parts of their practice split between Instagram messages, email, spreadsheets, notes, contact lists and application platforms. Enquiries were hard to track, details had to be rewritten and the artist’s professional identity changed from one platform to the next.
THE PURPOSE
A collector notebook that fills itself.
SOOMI combines a public home for an artist’s work with a private system for the relationships behind it. It is not a marketplace, a promise of instant success or a replacement for a gallery or agent.
WORK YOUR WAY
One companion, alongside the relationships you already have.
A gallery may represent selected work for a particular exhibition or period. SOOMI belongs to the artist and travels with them between exhibitions, galleries, organisers, direct buyers and new opportunities.
The name is inspired by a mosaic: individual stories and practices coming together while keeping their own identity. That same idea guides the product—shared practical infrastructure without asking artists to work or present themselves in the same way.