RareInk NBA Art Gallery

The NBA Has an Art Gallery? Really? Yes!

By: Ryan Anderson

As the NBA begins another season, the spotlight will focus on glamorous teams—like the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, and Miami Heat—and charismatic stars—like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and Kevin Durant—but devoted NBA aficionados with a love for art can have their favorite stars and teams immortalized on their walls.

Yes, the NBA has an art gallery; since Oct. 23, 2012, RareInk.com has been the official art provider of the NBA.

The partnership began because, “We approached the NBA with the concept of doing cool, modern art of their players and teams and they liked the idea as there isn’t anyone currently offering fans cutting-edge art for their walls. My partner, Tim Muret, and I had previous sports industry experience having worked for The Upper Deck Company. And, as hardcore sports fans ourselves, we both felt that there wasn’t anyone out there offering sports art that we’d want to put in our living rooms or offices,” said RareInk co-founder Dave Sanders.

RareInk offers art in a plethora of different categories—like teams, players, logos, “vintage,” poster-theme, and “ultra-realism.”

The site contains “original works commissioned from leading artists across the globe,” but takes great pains to point out that “100% of our fine art prints and canvases, frames and packaging are produced in the U.S.A.”

How does the site chose their artists and match them with pieces?

“We spend a lot of my time researching artists, trying to find ones that we feel will bring something new and unique to sports.,” said Sanders. “Rather than looking for existing sports artists, we instead try to find artists that have a unique style that could then be applied to sports. Once we determine what players or teams we want to create art pieces for, we then discuss the piece and what style we think would work best. Certain players seem to lend themselves better to certain art styles. The image that will be used for the basis of the art piece also factors in. If there is a player image that has a lot of motion to it, then we try to pair that piece with an artist that may have a lot of feeling of motion in his work.”

Pieces range in price from $69-$199, and “All RareInk products are hand-numbered, limited editions and include the RareInk and NBA labels on the back to ensure authenticity.”

How good is the art, though? 

Art expert Dmitry Samarov, who graduated from a Chicago art school and continues to work as a writer and artist in the area, suggests the quality leaves much to be desired.

“Some of the logos aren’t bad as graphic design, but the rest isn’t much better than the stuff they sell by freeway on-ramps,” Samarov said.

Samarov has actually contributed some of his own sports art—to sites like “theclassical.org” and “chicagosidesports.com”—so he understands, “There’s a way to make sports art that’s not schlock.”

“But, it doesn’t seem like this officially-sanctioned stuff is the right place to look for it,” he suggested. “They churn things like this to cash in on the seemingly bottomless wallets of American sports fans.”

Josh Strang is one of those American sports fans, and—though he doesn’t have a bottomless wallet—he did dip into his wallet to purchase some of RareInk’s NBA artwork.

Strang, from Milwaukee, graduated college in May 2012, and he decorated his room in the house he shared with friends with some of the RareInk art.

“I’m a [Houston] Rockets fan, so I got a Rockets [logo] piece, and it looked pretty sweet,” he said.

Strang also has love for his hometown Bucks—“even though they suck,” he jokes.

He also purchased the Bucks logo art, because, “you gotta rep the home team.”

Overall, Strang said he was satisfied with the pieces, admiring the way they fit the aesthetic of his college home.

“They fit pretty good in my ‘man-cave,’” he concluded.

Ryan Moye, an avowed NBA aficionado from Washington, D.C., also purchased work from RareInk.

“The [Washington] Wizards are my team,” Moye explained. “So, I got some of their team art.”

“Honestly, I wasn’t all that impressed,” Moye said.

“I think I’ll just stick to Wizards shirts and hats, not art [in the future],” Moye said.

RareInk, based in Carlsbad, C.A., also outfits the website with social media—not a surprise, since NBA commissioner David Stern has gone to great lengths to classify his league as hip and urbane. The site invites visitors to follow RareInk on Pinterest, “like it” on Facebook, and “join the conversation” on Twitter.

Sanders said, “Social media has definitely helped us spread the word about our collection and web site. We try to post daily content such as artwork images on Facebook and Twitter each day which gives fans something to react to and encourages their participation. It’s exciting to have social media provide direct interaction with consumers and more of a 2-way form of communication versus only a few years ago where a brand like ours would have had to do more traditional advertising such as print ads without really having the chance to have dialogue with fans. It's a much more fluid and free-flowing way of marketing.”

That interactivity isn’t mere lip-service, either; users actually have input on the artwork, according to CEO Tim Muret, who said at the time the partnership with the NBA was announced, “Fans can shape the future of the RareInk collection by voting for their favorite players and moments to be featured as art pieces.”

Sanders added, “With the growth of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, we
feel there is a unique opportunity for product companies such as ours to give more “power” to their consumers or fans and have them help determine the direction of products. With a sports-based product, it’s a great fit because fans love to give their feedback and each has their favorite moment or player they want to see offered as art. Participation in the fan voting so far has been solid with some fans and team blogs even campaigning to get more people to vote for their team or player.”

Currently, fan voting determines many of RareInk’s monthly releases. For example, for the month of November, there are four different polls one can vote on, and each poll offers four different pieces of art. The ones that garner the most votes are added to the collection and can be purchased.

RareInk has dabbled in more than just the NBA, however; in 2011, they partnered with renowned rapper Ice Cube for an altruistic project. RareInk reproduced personally autographed artwork from Ice Cube, with a portion of the sales donated to the nonprofit Minority AIDS Project—a  Los Angeles County AIDS and HIV support service.

Many of the pieces were renderings of Ice Cube’s album covers and photos, such as two renditions of Ice Cube’s 1990 solo debut AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted and a mural-styled piece depicting his 1992 hit single “It Was A Good Day.”

 In addition, two pieces consisted of Ice Cube’s actual paint-dipped hand prints.

At the time the project was announced, Ice Cube—a West Coast fixture who was born in L.A.—said, “Not only does RareInk create amazing pieces of art that bring my albums and songs to life but a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Minority AIDS Project, an organization I have worked with over the past two decades.”

Now, though, RareInk seems predominantly focused on the NBA. The site is dominated by NBA art, in all the various forms.

As Sanders concluded, “The cool thing about the NBA is there are always new storylines or stars emerging, so that helps determine what pieces we’ll do next.”