Art-world denizens have watched the development of Superblue—the immersive art platform founded by Pace Gallery president and CEO Marc Glimcher with backing from billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs—with a mixture of fascination and skepticism.

When it first debuted in mid-2020, Superblue was pitched as a way for the art industry to tap into the experiential art craze that had made event production companies a fortune. The company proposed to transform the art economy by monetizing art the same way record companies or Hollywood producers do: Instead of selling an artwork to a single person, sell tickets to a much, much broader audience.

But that vision has been harder to realize than its founders anticipated. On Friday, ARTnews published an investigation into the company, which has been facing stagnant growth and internal disagreements over its direction. 

Once intended to operate as many as half a dozen sites around the world, Superblue currently runs a single 50,000-square-foot location in Miami. After just over two years, the company has burned through millions of dollars in investor cash, ARTnews reported.

Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of late billionaire Steve Jobs, who invested in Superblue through her company Emerson Collective, relinquished two board seats as early as December 2021, according to ARTnews, after having invested a reported $15 million. A representative for Emerson Collective did not respond to request for comment.

Η συνέχεια εδώ.