CEO and co-founder of Superblue, Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst, has a storied art career that includes tenures at Sotheby’s and Gagosian. Her newest venture, Superblue, aims to champion artists whose ideas are best expressed through immersive, large-scale installations. She speaks with us ahead of her private event with Quintessentially members and the opening of Superblue London’s experience, Silent Fall by A.A. Murakami.
What is Superblue?
Superblue is a venture launched in 2020 that is dedicated to producing, presenting, and engaging the public with experiential art. Superblue venues – the first of which opened in Miami this spring – are designed to welcome a wide range of audiences and are specifically conceived to present large-scale and immersive works of art in the way the artists who have created them intend.
Your successful career in the art world has been connected to long-standing institutions, such as Sotheby’s and Gagosian. How did this traditional background ultimately encourage you to think outside the box about the future of art?
There have been so many exciting artists I’ve come across in my career who create work in immersive, interactive mediums, and it became clear that a new model was needed to support them. The artworld is designed around the presentation and exchange of objects, not the kinds of experiences these artists create, so that got me excited about finding a better way to support them.
Why is it important for people to experience art through different mediums?
When it comes to experiential art specifically, the artists creating immersive, interactive works all have entirely different ways of approaching their work. Still, they share an interest in getting audiences to think and see the world a little bit differently. When you’re immersed in a work of art, you’re transported for a while into a different world that can impact how you think and see yourself, as well as others.
Do you think art is inherently interactive?
Every experience of art is really what the audience makes of it and how they choose to engage.
So while I think a work can be as interactive as you’d like it to be, a Superblue interaction will be different from that of looking at a painting where meaning is thought of. At Superblue, meaning is felt.
How do you hope Superblue progresses and grows over the next few years?
We’re going to keep expanding into new markets and pursuing exciting projects all the time. Most recently, we presented an installation with Design Miami in Basel; opened a new exhibition in New York by Dutch artist duo DRIFT; and celebrated the launch of a temporary venue in London this October, and we’ll only continue to build on that in the coming years. We are ultimately an organisation pursuing the goals of the artist and will continue to work with our artists to engage with broad international audiences
On 19th October, members are invited to an exclusive viewing of Mollie’s private collection in London. Please contact your lifestyle manager for additional information.
