A VENDING MACHINE FOR ART
Unlike your typical vending machine, a Mystry Mart machine is stocked not with snacks but with snack-size pouches of original art made by local creatives. The catch is, you can’t see the art until you buy it.
Each Mystry Mart pouch is nearly identical: pink, opaque, and punctuated with a large question mark. A small QR code provides the only clue about what’s inside. Scanning the code lets you view an artist’s work online and decide if you like it before taking a gamble and buying a piece. “People get very excited about that aspect—it’s hard to resist the element of surprise,” says Mystry Mart co-founder Victoria Orlovskaya.
As for what a pouch might contain, the possibilities are as boundless as human creativity. If an item can fit in a pouch and withstand the drop from its coil to the vending machine floor, it’s a contender. “We focus on passionate unrepresented artists with a unique style,” Orlovskaya says. Her machines have dispensed miniature oil paintings, signed numbered prints, tiny toys, petite papier-mâché pigeons, one-of-a-kind tarot decks, and much more.
“We’re constantly on the lookout for more artists—our machines sell out so quickly—and once an artist is with us, we encourage them to keep making new pieces, not just to restock a slot, but to stay connected to their spark, to keep bringing new art into the world,” she says.
Artists set their own prices, which have ranged from $5 to upwards of $100, and the artist and Mystry Mart split the profits. “It’s very important to me to make sure people get paid for their work,” says Orlovskaya, whose Staten Island childhood was marred by constant financial turmoil. “We have worked with over 120 artists to date and I love hearing their success stories. People selling more work, gaining new fans, realizing they deserve to be seen and celebrated. That’s what fuels me.”
Art-vending entrepreneur was not the career Orlovskaya had in mind when she enrolled at FIT. The idea for Mystry Mart popped to mind when she was in Vegas and noticed that the most popular selection in a trinket vending machine was the mystery item. “I thought, ‘If I made a vending machine, I would make it all mystery art,’” she says. Back home, she filed for an LLC, trademarked the name Mystry Mart, and devoted herself to launching the business.
After debuting in 2024 at Brooklyn Art Cave, Mystry Mart had trouble finding a site for another machine, never mind finding inventory to fill it. “It was hard to get artists to trust us—I had to make 100 pieces of art myself to sell—and I thought, ‘How can we get people to take us seriously?’” she says. In a light bulb moment, Orlovskaya reached out to Time Out New York; an article followed and then the Brooklyn Museum commissioned a machine.“Everything I learned at FIT helped in the creation of Mystry Mart. Most importantly, I learned the power of the press.”
Two Mystry Mart machines now operate in New York City. Each machine is an eye-catching site-specific work of art. Illustrator Lizzy Itzkowitz painted the vibrant Brooklyn Museum machine. The second machine—located at the Bushwick nightclub House of Yes, founded by Fashion Design alums Kae Burke and Anya Sapozhnikova—is a glittering disco-ball-inspired number created by Orlovskaya’s team.
In December, a third machine is slated for Red Dot Miami, the juried contemporary art fair that showcases international galleries and artists during Art Basel Miami Beach. And where might a fourth Mystry Mart machine pop up? For now, that remains a big question mark, which is right on brand.