bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Tribune News Service

At New York’s Grand Central Station, there is a queue of at least 100 people from Vanderbilt Hall down to the terminal’s 42nd Street entrance. A mix of tourists and residents stand behind a roped-off area waiting to try their luck with one of Anastasia Inciardi’s hand-carved and printed linocut artworks.
The artist is celebrating about three years of vending machine art success thanks to viral boosts on Instagram and TikTok.
“It really has taken [on] a life of its own,” Inciardi said. “I originally created the Mini Print Vending Machine to collect quarters for laundry, but it unexpectedly changed my life.”
At the end of the line is her little red vending machine. Patrons wait to purchase one of Inciardi’s signature prints – a colourful block design paying tribute to a location or food – for four US quarters.

Which print they will receive is up to chance. At Grand Central, there are 10 options, ranging from a hot dog to a New York MetroCard.
Across the United States, inexpensive handmade vending machine art has become a trendy novelty, with devoted Instagram pages, Reddit subreddit channels and maps.
“I’ve always loved creating affordable linocuts of food, and the machines have allowed me to focus on making art accessible and joyful,” Inciardi, from the US state of Maine, said. “With 45 machines nationwide … it’s been such a blast and has surpassed my wildest expectations.”
Inciardi’s machine residencies have blossomed into partnerships with American companies like J. Crew and Warby Parker as well as museums.
Grand Central has sold out of its supply several times, with an average of 2,000 daily print sales at its height, according to a spokesman. And it is still going strong, with the terminal stationing security guards to monitor the line.

Inciardi is not the first nor the only artist to take her prints to the masses via machine.
In the 1990s, Art-o-mat machines gained popularity thanks to the artist Clark Whittington, who is credited with refurbishing a cigarette vending machine to spit out art instead. To this day, versions of the Art-o-mat continue to circulate.
At the Brooklyn Museum in New York, Mystery Mart is a refurbished snack machine that acts as a “mini gallery” to showcase the work of independent artists from across the country. Mystery Mart launched in 2022.
Indie artists with their own refurbished sticker machines continue to sprout up across the country from West Virginia to Texas to California.
In Philadelphia, Fabiola Lara – an illustrator and podcast host with an impressive social media following of her own – decided to get in on the vending machine fun after being inspired by artists like Inciardi.












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by Fabiola Lara | Illustrator (@fabiolitadraws)



“I just started looking for sticker vending machines and told myself if I came across one, I’d give it a shot,” she said. In April, she launched her first mini print sticker vending machine.
The mini prints resembled postage stamps, with their scalloped borders framing illustrations of Philadelphia landmarks.
By December, Lara had expanded, with three machines across Philadelphia and several illustrations. Now she is up to five, with plans to keep expanding. Her dining room area is crowded with four salvaged sticker vending machines she is working on repurposing. Even more machines are waiting in the basement.
All of her designs are printed using a Risograph printer, a stencil duplicator whose process has been compared to screen printing.
“It’s basically like a copier print, except it uses real ink instead of digital print,” Lara explained. “Risograph prints are really special because they’re more pigmented and vibrant as opposed to your standard inkjet printer.”

In an average week, she loads machines with 200-400 prints and visits them throughout the month for restocking and quarter collections.
“One of the special things that’s come out of this project is being able to work more closely with local businesses in Philadelphia,” Lara said. “As an artist where most of my clients are national or online, it’s really nice to get into some bricks-and-mortar places and get to know businesses in my own community.”
“My favourite part about doing this is seeing little kids figure out how to use the machine for the first time and seeing adults kind of relive their childhood,” she said.


Statue of Liberty, Big Ben models in underwater art show to raise climate change awareness

An art lover’s guide to Paris, from Mona Lisa at the Louvre to van Gogh to a Dali museum

Hong Kong’s corporate culture challenged in defiant art exhibition set in an office space

TikTok-viral tattoo artist Knight is 9 years old, and wants to open his own parlour

Art lovers will adore this viral vending machine trend that spits out a US$1 print

One of Anastasia Inciardi’s art-vending machines. Photo: Instagram/inciardi

Anastasia Inciardi’s art-vending machine in New York. Aided by Instagram and TikTok, the artist has started a bit of a trend in the United States of repurposed vending machines that sell art prints. Photo: Instagram/inciardi

A print by Anastasia Inciardi that comes from an art-vending machine. Photo: Instagram/inciardi

Anastasia Inciardi’s art-vending machine. Photo: Instagram/inciardi

One of artist Fabiola Lara’s miniature print dispensers in the US city of Philadelphia. Photo: Instagram/fabiolitadraws

Rare Banksy painting, owned by blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, up for auction for US$6.35 million

Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 poses stands by his painting Crude Oil (Vettriano) by Banksy (2005), which is being auctioned by Sotheby’s on Monday. Photo: Sotheby’s via AP

Scottish artist Jack Vettriano stands with his work The Missing Man II in 2015. Vettriano has died at the age of 73. Photo: PA Wire / dpa

Ex-Facebook director pens ‘explosive’ memoir about the ‘careless’ people running Meta

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He, Meta executive Joel Kaplan and former 
chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg are painted as “careless human beings” in an “explosive” book by a former Meta executive out this month. Photo: AFP

The cover of Wynn-Williams’ book. Photo: Flatiron via AP)

New Mexico, cradle of low-rider car culture, looks to promote custom Chevys and Pontiacs

Joan Medina with her 1987 Pontiac Grand Prix low-rider in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo: AP 

Vicki Garcia cleans her 1963 Chevy Impala low-rider in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Lowrider Day,  February 11. Photo: AP 

A 1987 Pontiac Grand Prix low-rider owned by Joan Medina outside the state capitol in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo: AP

Joe Romero of Albuquerque with his original 1959 Chevy Impala in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo: AP

New Mexico state senator Leo Jaramillo of Espanola in a low-rider truck owned by Lorenzo Otero on Lowrider Day. Photo: AP

How the Erotic Ghost Story films shocked and seduced Hong Kong

(From left) Amy Yip, Man Siu and Kudo Hitomi in a still from Erotic Ghost Story.

Pal Sinn (left) and Amy Yip in a still from Erotic Ghost Story (1990). Yip made the first Erotic Ghost Story a success, mainly because of her buxom physique.

Joey Wong and Leslie Cheung in a still from A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). Photo: Film Workshop

A promotional image for Erotic Ghost Story (1990).

Charine Chan (bottom right) in a promotional image for Erotic Ghost Story 2 (1991).

A promotional image for Erotic Ghost Story 3 (1992).

(From left) Pauline Chan, Kenny Wong and Chik King-man in a still from Erotic Ghost Story 3 (1992).

Lifestyle

Arts

Aided by Instagram and TikTok, artist Anastasia Inciardi has started a bit of a trend in the US – vending machines that sell art prints


Aided by Instagram and TikTok, artist Anastasia Inciardi has started a bit of a trend in the US – vending machines that sell art prints.


United States

Offbeat