Layer launched a $22,000 digital art display aimed at high-end collectors and galleries. The startup, founded by Angelo Sotira — who created DeviantArt as a teen — wants to change how digital art is shown on walls.
The pricey screen isn’t like Samsung’s The Frame TV that mimics paintings when off. Layer is built for dynamic, code-driven digital art, not static photos or videos. Sotira emphasizes it’s designed to blend seamlessly into upscale environments.
“The way that the canvas needs to perform and behave in your life is quite different than other types of displays,” Angelo Sotira told TechCrunch. “It needs to blend into beautiful environments.”
The screen runs generative AI art developed by artists like Casey Reas, who write their own software. These live-coded pieces need serious GPU power to render in full resolution without compression.
“You’re looking at an over 35-year history of extraordinary artists developing the medium of code-based art and essentially, the pixels on the display are being governed by the code that’s been written that runs live on that GPU, rendering it in full resolution,” Sotira said. “It’s actually controlling every pixel, so it’s not going through any compression algorithms.”
Layer focuses on ease of use, too. Sotira wants buyers to plug it in, turn it on, and have it manage art rotation automatically.
“One of the driving principles is that you can plug it in, turn it on, and leave it alone, and it should know how to sequence art for you,” Sotira said.
The startup raised $5.7 million from Expa Ventures, Human Ventures, and notable angels like Twitter co-founder Evan Williams. With each Layer purchase comes a subscription to digital art collections, paying artists royalties based on view time.
“We put artists first, and that’s kind of the core mission and philosophy of Layer,” Sotira said.
This product targets a niche market of digital art collectors wanting top-tier digital canvases that respect the art’s evolving, live code nature.
