Arcual was launched in November 2022 as a “blockchain community by the art community, for the art community”. Founded by artworld leaders – Maja Hoffmann’s LUMA Foundation and MCH Group (the parent company of Art Basel) – Arcual’s goal is to make blockchain services the core of how artists, galleries and collectors do business, putting artists back at the heart of the art ecosystem.
This infrastructure, geared to creating a trusted space for collaboration and digital innovation, has deployed its expertise and reach in the primary market and galleries in the Art Basel network, focusing on the agreements made between a gallery and an artist, and between the gallery and the first collector. “We’re starting with the primary sale, to ensure that information is clean and well documented, with the goal to expand from there,” says Arcual CEO Bernadine Bröcker Wieder, describing the operation’s tightly focused initial approach.
As Arcual implements its ambitious strategy over the course of 2023, ArtReview is publishing a series of articles and interviews with key figures in the platform’s orbit. During its debut at Art Basel Hong Kong in March, Arcual joined ArtReview and Para Site in presenting the group exhibition signals… storms and patterns, cohosting a brunch as part of the official Art Basel Hong Kong VIP programme; and ahead of Frieze New York, Zurich Art Weekend and Art Basel in Basel, ArtReview caught up with some of the gallerists who have been consigning work to be sold through Arcual’s primary application, Salesroom.
