January 13, 2026
Art or Adware?
The Inevitable Rise of the Art TV
Pretty picture or spy frame? Internet melts down over 'Art TVs'
TLDR: Art TVs are booming—Amazon’s $899 Ember Artline joins Samsung, LG, TCL, and Hisense with matte screens and 2,000 free artworks. Commenters are split between loving the gallery look and fearing surveillance, power draw, and landlord‑core vibes, making decor the latest battleground for smart home drama.
From “blank void be gone” to “Big Brother in a gilded frame,” Art TVs just crashed the party—and the comments are on fire. Samsung’s Frame kicked this off back in 2017 with a matte, anti-glare screen and swappable bezels that make a TV look like a painting. Now Hisense’s CanvasTV, TCL’s van Gogh‑teasing model, LG’s upcoming Gallery TV, and Amazon’s new $899 Ember Artline (2,000 free artworks, Alexa picks your vibe) are all vying for wall space and your aesthetic.
But the community isn’t buying the romance without receipts. One ex‑TV station worker joked that whenever paintings appeared on set, it meant something “went terribly wrong,” turning the whole trend into a meme. Privacy hawks are side‑eyeing the “always there” screens: do these things listen while they pretty‑up your living room? A skeptic calls the whole wave post‑CES PR for a niche that “hasn’t had traction.” Meanwhile, a hands‑on owner claims their 75" Frame uses 70W in art mode, with a motion sensor that shuts it off after a while—and they see lots of blocked requests on their home firewall (aka a tool that stops chatty smart gadgets from phoning home).
And then there’s the culture war: fans love the clean, gallery look; critics call it landlord‑core, a rental aesthetic where you get “customization” without real control. Is this tasteful tech—or just camouflage for a mediocre TV? The comments say: dramatic, gorgeous, and maybe a little creepy.
Key Points
- •Samsung’s Frame TV (2017) popularized TVs that display artwork in standby with a matte, anti-glare screen and frame-like bezels.
- •Art TVs are gaining traction as brands introduce similar models, driven by aesthetics and advances in screen design.
- •Hisense announced CanvasTV late last year; TCL’s NXTvision and LG’s Gallery TV also target the art-display segment.
- •Amazon launched the Ember Artline TV at CES 2026, priced at $899, offering 2,000 free artworks and Alexa AI-assisted selection.
- •Art TVs aim to serve smaller urban living spaces by integrating visually into home decor.