Trendy art that only costs $1: Vending machine art is popping up nationwide

At New York’s Grand Central Station, there’s a line at least 100 deep from Vanderbilt Hall down to the terminal’s 42nd Street entrance. A mix of tourists and locals stand behind a roped-off area waiting to try their luck with one of Anastasia Inciardi’s hand-carved and printed linocut pieces.

The Maine-based artist is celebrating about three years of vending machine art success thanks to viral boosts on Instagram and TikTok.

“It really has taken 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 colorful block design paying tribute to a location or food — for four quarters. Which print they’ll receive is up to chance. At Grand Central, there are 10 options, ranging from a hot dog to a New York MetroCard.

Across the country, inexpensive handmade vending machine art has become a trendy novelty, with devoted Instagram pages, Reddit subreddit channels, and maps. Philly is no exception with several vending machines from a range of artists citywide.

“I’ve always loved creating affordable linocuts of food, and the machines have allowed me to focus on making art accessible and joyful,” Inciardi 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 companies like J. Crew and Warby Parker as well as museums.

Grand Central has sold out of its supply several times since the holidays, with an average of 2,000 daily print sales at its height, according to a spokesperson. And it’s still going strong, with the terminal stationing security guards to monitor the line.

But in Philadelphia locals can skip the long lines, instead snagging one of Inciardi’s vending machine prints within minutes.Inciardi makes it to Philly with three machines and counting

Inciardi’s machine made its Philly debut in December at the newly opened Another Corner book and magazine shop in Society Hill.

“The reception has been great,” owner Lee Frank said. “I’ve witnessed people trading, talking about the other machines they’ve visited, people unrolling quarters, collecting the full set. And it’s been a great way to introduce our shop to a lot of new people.”

Last month, another local business would follow suit. DiBruno Bros. announced in January that it was installing two Inciardi machines — one at its Rittenhouse location and one at its 9th Street bottleshop — featuring 10 prints of staple ingredients (like olives, bleu cheese, and glass bottles of Miller High Life).

“My grandmother, two aunts, two uncles, and my cousins all live in Philly,” Inciardi said. “When I first started placing my vending machines, I wanted my grandmother to have one within walking distance. She’s 85 and loves to walk to DiBruno Bros., pick up some Romano, antipasti, and a few of my mini prints.”

The artist says she’s selling a few thousand prints per month across her three Philadelphia machines and that she hopes to expand soon. She sees it as a win-win situation for her, local businesses, and residents.

“[They] drive foot traffic to the businesses that host them, and we love hearing stories of people coming from around the country to seek out specific machines,” she said. “The machines can also contribute to strengthening the community within a small business or a museum, as collectors trade the prints with others locally and around the country, similar to Pokemon cards.”The history of art vending machines

Still, Inciardi isn’t 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’s credited with refurbishing a cigarette vending machine to spit out art instead. To this day, versions of the Art-o-mat continue to circulate. There’s currently one in Philadelphia’s Downtown Aloft on the ground floor that’s open to the general public.

At the Brooklyn Museum, Mystery Mart is a refurbished snack machine that acts as a “mini gallery” to showcase independent local artists from across the country. Mystery Mart launched in 2022 and was inspired by another art vending machine out of Las Vegas’ Area 15 art district.

Other indie artists with their own refurbished sticker machines continue to sprout up across the county from West Virginia, to Texas, to Southern California.

Local artist Fabiola Lara launches her own art vending machines

In Philly, Fabiola Lara — a Latinx 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.

“I just started looking for sticker vending machines and told myself if I came across one, I’d give it a shot,” she said from her South Philly rowhouse studio. In April, she launched her first Mini Philly Postal Print sticker vending machine at This Corner — which is also owned by Another Corner’s Lee.

The mini prints resembled postage stamps with their scalloped borders framing illustrations of Philadelphia landmarks, like the LOVE sculpture, Rocky, and the William Penn Statue.

By December, Lara expanded with three machines across Philly and several illustrations. Now, she’s up to five with plans to keep expanding. Her dining room area is crowded with four salvaged sticker vending machines she’s working on repurposing. Even more machines are waiting in the basement.

All of her designs are printed using a Risograph (known best as Riso) 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. “They’re printed at Pet Riso in the Bok Building. Risograph prints are really special because they’re more pigmented and vibrant as opposed to your standard inkjet printer.”

Lara has expanded her designs throughout the year, including special Christmas-themed prints, like Miracle on 13th Street, during the holiday season. This month, she debuted a pink-hued Valentine’s Day collection, which is still available for the season.

“I really wanted to represent all different kinds of love, not just romantic love. I wanted something for everyone, from your best friend, to your boss, to your lover,” she said. “It also really reminded me of creating Valentine’s Day cards for your classmates in school.”

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 brick-and-mortar places and get to know businesses in my own community.”

Her hope is to keep growing and to hopefully collaborate with the Eagles or Reading Terminal Market on future prints.

“My favorite part about doing this is seeing little kids figure out how to use the machine for the first time and seeing adults kind of re-live their childhood,” she said. “I had a mom DM me and tell me that every time they go by one of my machines at BOK, they let their kid get one print at a time.”