Experiential Art Center in Miami, Façade Rendering. Courtesy of Superblue. Photo: Moris Moreno
Superblue, a new enterprise dedicated to producing, presenting, and engaging the public with experiential art, has announced it will launch its first experiential art center in Miami this December. Superblue venues are designed to welcome a wide range of audiences and are specifically conceived for the presentation of large-scale works that immerse and engage visitors as part of the art itself. Miami, a global destination with a vibrant arts community, is the first of several cities internationally in which Superblue will open centers in the coming years—adding a completely new kind of venue to the cultural landscape in each city and expanding the audience for experiential art globally.
Superblue was created in response to the rapidly growing public interest in experiential art and the needs of artists working outside the realm of object-based practices. The new enterprise pioneers a new model for artists to present their work—and for audiences to engage with it—outside of the traditional frameworks of museums and commercial galleries. Featuring long-term installations, Superblue experiential art centers enable the simultaneous presentation of multiple large-scale and interactive works— offering visitors opportunities to be transported to an array of new worlds in just one visit. T
Superblue is working with artists that include Nick Cave, Mary Corse, Es Devlin, DRIFT , Simon Heijdens, Jeppe Hein, Studio INI , JR, Koo Jeong A, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer , Kohei Nawa, Carsten Nicolai, Risa Puno , Random International, Michal Rovner, Jacolby Satterwhite , Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Studio Swine, teamLab , James Turrell, and Leo Villareal. Central to Superblue’s model is the introduction of an innovative compensation system for artists that provides them with ongoing royalties from ticket sales for their presentations at Superblue venues.
Superblue was cofounded by Marc Glimcher, President and CEO of Pace Gallery, and Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst , former president of Pace London, who serves as its Chief Creative Officer. Christy MacLear serves as Chief Executive Officer. Emerson Collective, a social change organization established and led by Laurene Powell-Jobs, is founding partner of Superblue.
“Artists conjure up extraordinary universes that provoke new ideas about ourselves and make us reimagine our relationship with each other and the world,” stated Marc Glimcher. “We’ve been working with artists creating immersive, boundary-breaking experiential art for decades, and now, with the rapidly growing number of artists working in these media and their accelerating popularity, it became clear that a totally new kind of enterprise was needed to both advance their practices and respond to growing public interest in them. Superblue represents a necessary evolution and disruption of the arts ecosystem, providing artists with the resources they need for realizing their most ambitious ideas and engaging the public in the ways they envisioned, which is so integral to the work itself.”
“The advent of new technologies has spurred a rapid growth in the number of artists innovating with experience-based works over the past decade and completely reinventing the way we understand art and how we engage with it,” said Dent-Brocklehurst. “As artists pioneer these new mediums, audiences are increasingly eager for the dynamic explorations they provide. We see Superblue as a vital addition to the current constellation of arts venues and as a galvanizing force for this movement, and look forward to collaborating with museums, collectors, galleries, municipalities, and other partners in sharing the remarkable experiences Superblue artists create.”
“Superblue is a paradigm shift—from object to experience—that provides artists with new platforms to fully realize their inspirations and ideas and engage visitors with the global issues of our time,” said MacLear. “In creating Superblue centers, our goal is to finally make these experiences available on an ongoing basis to a wide range of audiences. We look forward to welcoming visitors and giving them the opportunity to understand the world through artists’ eyes.”
