Groundbreaking Superblue art space is literally in the clouds. Will Miami take the win?
The cascade divides you as you step across the rivulets, surrounding your feet before streaming on. Flowers bloom beneath your shoes. Washed in the tonal music of teamLab’s “Transcending Boundaries,” you can almost feel the digital waterfall flowing from the 30-foot ceilings.
Behind the next door, you can, quite literally, touch the clouds, losing yourself in the bubbles that are constantly colliding, splitting and reforming in an interactive artwork that explores the gossamer line between things alive and inanimate.
Both are part of the inaugural show presented by Superblue, the new private space for immersive art in Allapattah. While a relative handful of invited guests will get a preview of the artworks this week, the public opening — originally slated for December 2020 but delayed by the pandemic — is set for April 22. By then, final touches — including a cafe and shop — are expected to be in place.
Even in this city with unparalleled public access to extraordinary contemporary art, Superblue presents a unique opportunity for art lovers to burst the traditional boundaries between artwork and viewer. For artists, it also brings a new business model supported by patrons who may not have the means to shell out millions of dollars for a masterpiece — but are happy to spend $36 for a few thought-provoking hours of enthrallment.
“Our goal is to create a forum for artists to make work, for patrons to be the public, and for artists to dream big,” says Marc Glimcher, CEO of the highly regarded Pace Gallery and Superblue co-founder, during a preview walk-through. While affiliated with Pace, Superblue is a separate company whose investors include the Emerson Collective, a social change engine founded by Laurene Powell Jobs.
Experiential installations aren’t new, as anyone familiar with Christo and Jean-Claude’s 1980’s pink-skirted “Surrounded Islands” in Biscayne Bay can attest. More than 400,000 queued in New York in 2013 to bask in the glow of James Turrell’s “Aten Reign” light sculpture at the Guggenheim Museum. Mirrored infinity rooms by Yayoi Kusama (including the pre-pandemic “Pumpkins” at ICA-Miami), Trenton Doyle Hancock’s 2019 “Mound City” installation at Locust Projects in the Design District, Jesús Rafael Soto’s “Penetrable BBL Blue” sculpture of swinging blue ropes outside the Perez Art Museum Miami and Leandro Ehrlich’s 2019 life-size traffic jam in the sand — all fall on the spectrum.
“There is an ongoing history of artists creating experiences that are time-based that involve not only your eyes but potentially your ears and also your body,”says Franklin Sirmans, director of Perez Art Museum Miami. He recall an occasion when Yves Klein, an early proponent of performance art, invited a group of people to a gallery that had nothing in it. “That was a thing.”
In the eyes of Miami art collector Mera Rubell, “Truth be told, all art is immersive. When .you look at a painting, your whole life flashes in front of you...it’s powerful when it washes over you.
“The one thing that this immersive experience” — meaning Superblue — “gives is that you’re allowed to touch. this is art that you can literally be inside of. You’re like the paint, the brush. The art is physically touching you.”
As for immersive entertainment, think back before the pandemic to 2018’s Museum of Ice Cream — a fun and Instagram-worthy exercise, if not exactly thought-provoking.
For the past several years, Artechouse in Miami Beach has offered digital art experiences; currently on show is “Aqueous.” And on April 15, a pop-up digital immersion allowing viewers to stroll through 300 van Gogh works opens at the Ice Palace.
“Those are valid,” says Glimcher.
But not, he says, the same.
“We’re a business like a movie studio, producing the work of an artist and presenting it to the public.” He likens Superblue to United Artists, founded in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin and fellow actors. It focused on the interests of the artists and built an infrastructure, including theaters, to showcase them.
“Our highest priority is to serve the artist,” says Glimcher.
That’s not idle talk. On this day, a light sculpture by Turrell is under wraps as it’s re-installed to correct a small flaw in drywall that creates the surrounding frame. While a different type of venue might dismiss the blemish as barely noticeable, the Superblue team quickly set about making the change.
Says Glimcher, “the experience at Superblue is completely dependent on the artist. We represent a group of artists. They will create their dreams that will help us see nature in a new way, see ourselves in relationship to technology in a new ways, see ourselves in new ways.
“Your heart soars; you have to reconsider how you think about the world around you and your place in it …... I hope people come away with that gift.”
‘Too much to drink’
Superblue’s immersive art showcase was sparked by a wildly successful 2016 show at Pace’s Palo Alto, Calif., outpost that drew some 200,000 to see an installation created by teamLab, a Japan-based collective of some 700 artists, designers, engineers and programmers under the creative direction of Toshiyuki Inoko. But in 2018, the concept crystallized into something more when Glimcher ran into Rubell at the Art Basel fair in Hong Kong. She had just purchased warehouse space in Allapattah as a new home for her family’s collection, along with a massive warehouse immediately across the street. An arrangement to lease the warehouse to the Wolfsonian had fallen through.
“I had a little too much to drink,” Glimcher recalls. By the evening’s end, the two had shaken hands on a deal for him to lease the 50,000-square-foot building on Northwest 23rd Street.
What followed was a plan to commission immersive works by world-class artists that would be displayed in semi-permanent spaces in six global cities. (The city for the second space, due to open in eight months, has yet to be announced.) The name Superblue derives from a movement in Germany initiated by key artists of the pre-World War I era, called the Blue Rider Group, which believed blue is the color of the spirit.
The substantial initial expenses of the phenomenological artwork and the spaces showing it would be amortized as the works were rotated from one city to the next. While Glimcher won’t reveal the cost, he put it at “many millions.”
Like so much this past year, the launch was delayed by COVID-19. Yet as in-person engagement goes, this seems perfect for a pandemic period. The space is vast, with 31,000 square feet across the exhibitions. Entry is timed and ticketed to limit crowds.
Patrons are constantly on the move — a trend that Glimcher believes will outlive the pandemic. “There’s a very philosophical conversation about seats, that entertainment that happens in a chair doesn’t really fit with how things are going. The chair is going away. “
The result is “Every Wall Is a Door,” featuring seven installations that, taken together, provoke questions about nature, energy, human actions and perceptions — and the connections between them all, sprinkled with a hearty dash of OMG moments.
Four of the works come from teamLab, a Japan-based collective of some 700 artists, designers, engineers and programmers. under the direction of Toshiyuki Inoko. For the past two months, 10 of those artists have worked night and day installing interactive video projections and soundtracks that react to each other and to visitors as play on themes of birth, death, renewal.
These are not just installations, says Miami collector Marty Margulies, who visited teamLab in Japan but has not yet been to Superblue. “You’re very much engulfed. When you walk out of [a teamlab work,] you’re scratching your head and wondering, ‘what the heck is this?’’’
Superblue’s cloud room goes beyond any of teamLab’s video works. The first-of-a-kind “living sculpture” infuses soap bubbles with the energy of airflow that causes them to cling — to each other and to visitors — and then dissipate into the coolness sure to offer respite on a hot Miami day. The concept, Inoko says via an interpreter, is an exploration into the middle state between living and non-living entities — such as viruses. Even viewers who don’t relate to the concepts explored will find the experience magical.
For everyday art lovers, light sculptor Turrell is likely the most familiar artist in the show. His work here, “AKHU,” plays with the limits of human perception as it transitions through a range of hues.
In another section of the building, Es Devlin’s multilevel “Forest of Us” is arguably the most dramatic (the London-based artist also is a stage designer). It is also, quite literally, breathtaking. The sound of breathing is infused in the introductory video, tying together the breath of our human lungs with the breath of the planet, underscoring the connection between the two. “Avatar” fans will feel the love.
Spoiler alert: Devlin’s video “screen” swings open to reveal a mirrored maze that leads up, down and around to a reflecting pool. But really, no alert is needed: Words can’t possibly convey the near-mystical experience that follows.
Which is, after all, Superblue’s raison d’etre.
A new model
Transporting visitors beyond 3-D is one goal here; another is transforming the art world itself.
Like any marketplace, today’s commercial art ecosystem involves makers, marketers, buyers and presenters. Gallerists handle the promotion, administration and sales by the artists they agree to represent, taking half the proceeds. Wealthy collectors — and sometimes museums — purchase the works, then loan or donate them to museums that show them to the public. While artists’ reputations are boosted by museum shows and high resale prices, they benefit financially only from the initial sale, missing out when the market value of an existing work rises.
Though he benefits handsomely from the traditional model, Glimcher’s Superblue venture turns the art business on its head.
“This is a new idea about how to support artists’ vision,” he says. “We want to create a new model where the public can intervene, where the public can say ‘we love this and we’re going to support this.’ ” The artists involved get a share of profits, creating an ongoing revenue stream.
But the new model isn’t just about money, admits Glimcher, who says the art world has become a private club too exclusive for its own good.
Once, art connoisseurs complained that the public didn’t appreciate works by the likes of abstractionist Jackson Pollock, Glimcher says. “Now there’s a line for two hours to get in to see the Jackson Pollock, and we hate that too! We say they aren’t looking at it right. They just want to have their picture taken with it.
“The hidden thought here is they ” — by which Glimcher means the public — “aren’t able to judge. They can’t tell what’s good and what’s bad. They want Disney World and we want art.
“Well, they do want Disney World. I like Disney World. They also want art….they want to be elevated, to be challenged and to have their perception extended.”
To the erudite, he says, “What were we writing all those essays for ? What were we having all those erudite conversations for? So no one would have their perceptions extended? So it would just be us?
“Come on Art World. Take the win!”
The same could be said of Miami.
When Glimcher first told people he was launching his multimillion-dollar project in Miami, he heard skepticism.
“Everyone said Miami? And then COVID happens and everyone says, yes, MIAMI! Then the COVID surge happens and everyone says Miami? And then Miami learns to live with COVID better than everyone else, and everyone says MIAMI!
“Everyone tells me Miami people are going to get bored. I always think that the wonderful thing is going to happen, not the disappointing one...
“I’m so looking forward to telling everyone that they were wrong. But...We’ll see.”
If you go
What: Superblue’s inaugural show, “Every Wall is a Door.”
Where: 1101 NW 23rd St., Allapattah
Near: Santa Clara Metrorail station, Rubell Museum, Hometown Barbecue
When: Opens April 22; the initial show will be in place at least one year
Tickets: Must be purchased online. Access to teamLab’s “Massless Clouds” requires a $10 surcharge to regular entry, as follows:
▪ Adults, $36.
▪ Students, seniors 65+, active military, frontline healthcare workers: $34.
▪ Children (3–12): $32.
Inaugural program: “Every Wall Is a Door”
▪ James Turrell: “AKHU”
▪ Es Devlin: “Forest of Us”
▪ teamLab: “Between Life and Non-Life:” Four works: “Massless Clouds Between Sculpture and Life,” “Life Survives by the Power of Life II,” “Universe of Water Particles, Transcending Boundaries,” and “Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together – Transcending Boundaries, A Whole Year per Hour and Proliferating Immense Life, A Whole Year per Year”
Information: superblue.com/miami/
This article was updated to correct the name of the show currently at Artechouse.
This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 4:58 PM.
