DeviantArt Founder Unveils $22,000 Digital Art Display: Layer

Angelo Sotira, the founder of online art community DeviantArt, is disrupting the digital art world again. This time, he's focusing on how digital art is displayed with his new venture, Layer.

Layer is a premium display designed to showcase digital art in its highest quality. Unlike consumer products like Samsung's The Frame TV, Layer is specifically built for dynamic, code-based art, not static images.

The way the canvas performs and behaves in your life is quite different than other types of displays. It needs to blend into beautiful environments.

A Premium Display for Premium Art

Priced at $22,000, Layer targets serious art collectors and galleries. Sotira emphasizes the no-compromise approach to creating the ultimate digital art viewing experience.

They're $22,000, so that kind of tells you a lot about who that's for. We spared no expense and we spared no effort. We made no compromise in producing what is, in our opinion, the very best way to display digital art on a wall.

Layer is designed to showcase generative AI art created by artists like Casey Reas. This type of art, generated by custom code, evolves over time and requires significant computing power, which contributes to Layer's high price.

The display's powerful GPU renders artwork in full resolution without compression, ensuring the artist's vision is perfectly preserved.

Beyond Hardware: A Platform for Artists

Layer isn't just a display; it's a platform. Owners receive a subscription to a curated collection of digital art, and artists receive royalties based on display time. This model prioritizes supporting artists, a core value carried over from Sotira's DeviantArt days.

We put artists first, and that's kind of the core mission and philosophy of Layer.

While in stealth mode, Layer secured $5.7 million in funding, demonstrating investor confidence in Sotira's vision. With backing from firms like Expa Ventures and notable angels like Evan Williams (Twitter co-founder) and Scott Belsky (Behance co-founder), Layer is poised to redefine how we experience digital art.