You may not realize it yet, but if you have ever felt inspired after visiting Toronto’s most beloved boutique hotels, shops, and eateries, your appreciation for art and design has likely already been influenced by curator and advisor Ashley Mulvihill, founder of art consultancy Studio Ninth.

On July 15, Studio Ninth will launch its revamped e-commerce art platform Ninth Editions, which offers collections of original artworks and limited-edition photography by Canadian artists, priced between $400 and $6,200.

Mulvihill’s ambition is to make the experience of living with good art more accessible for everyone. She is the visionary behind the painted orbs suspended in the Waterworks Food Hall on King Street West, the artworks adorning fashion favourites Loversland on Ossington Avenue and Absolutely Fabrics on Queen Street West, and, alongside some invited collaborators, all the design-drenched nooks and crannies of Drake Hotel properties everywhere.

“The traditional gallery world can be a bit challenging to navigate if you’ve never approached it,” says Mulvihill. “I like to see myself as a complement to that community. I think there’s real value in those institutions, but we also need more spaces for regular people outside of the art world to buy art.”

The art ecosystem is notoriously non-transparent, with barriers to entry for both emerging artists and potential clients including befuddling artspeak, hidden price lists, and a lack of clarity around how value is assigned. “The more we talk about it, the less fragile it becomes,” says Mulvihill of demystifying the practice of purchasing art, “and everyone benefits.”

Every six weeks, Ninth Editions will launch a new collection of 18 works. “If someone wanted to buy four artworks, they know they’re all going to work together,” says Mulvihill, acknowledging that not everyone has the time or interest to do the hours of research required to become an art connoisseur.

Works will be available in a wide variety of mediums, with some functional – clocks, lampshades, sconces, vessels – and others just for looking at lovingly. All are tied together by Mulvihill’s eye and intuition, which lead her to works driven by process, colour, concept, experimentation, craftsmanship, and the pure joy of beauty. “For too long, we have had such a strict definition of fine art, and really I think it’s so expansive,” says Mulvihill. “The more we can think about living with art in a nuanced and layered way, the more we can appreciate small things.”

“Whenever I’ve thought about art, I’ve thought about environments,” says Mulvihill, who trained as a professional ballerina. She traces her outlook on living with art to how dance combines complementary elements – music, choreography, lighting, costumes, set design – to build a complete world.

“Art is not singular,” says Mulvihill, whose own home is as exuberantly embellished with art and beautiful things as the private and public spaces she has curated. “Sometimes I struggle with seeing art in a white wall gallery, so out of context.” Integrating art into everyday life, she says, “can be so transformative. The layering and combination of all those things, it creates a magic.”

For more information on Studio Ninth, click here.

Feature image by Alison Postma, courtesy of Studio Ninth.