origin story
JUKE was born in November 2024 from a relationship of friendship, critique of the art sector, and a defiant rejection of longevity as legitimacy, permanence as inevitability.
Our spirit is defined by innovation and revolution in a sense of changing the rules; we believe the cultural sector lacks truly transformative proposals. Structures dominating the art market are predominantly intermediated and undemocratic, built on scarcity and exclusion. Too often, those who profit act as gatekeepers, preserving barriers that prevent others from reaching the same.
JUKE exists to reverse that logic, build bridges not burn them, mobilise connections and establish cooperation beyond affinity or identity. The feeling we aim to evoke is power: power to do, to create, to reshape reality through creativity. Our mission is to develop self reliance and self organisation within the artist community, so that more people can enter artistic careers, increase their capacity, and use their creative abilities to transform their surroundings.
The world is ours to win, and the shift has begun.
By artists, for artists.
KRITI started her first arts-education non-profit at 14. She read Physics at Oxford while painting at the Florence Academy of Art, then spent her early career inside large financial and consulting institutions, followed by leading frontier AI start-up, long enough to learn how money and authority move. She left to be a painter and co-found JUKE. Her work extends into film and performance, and alongside running JUKE, she is working in investigative journalism and AI policy. Her practice explores play, liberation, immediacy.
A self-made artist and serial entrepreneur from a small town in Brazil, RENAN has built a global career as a contemporary dancer and performing artist. Berlin-based, they work across performance, choreography, video, and music, with collaborations at the Goethe-Institut, The Royal Ballet, the Venice Biennale, and the Berlinale. He speaks seven languages. Before co-founding JUKE, they founded Dancers Connect to help independent artists navigate their rights and careers.
In 2026, Renan stepped back from JUKE to focus on building Opportuning, a platform which takes the grind out of finding and applying for artist opportunities. Check it out :)