Copenhagen’s von Bartha Gallery has announced a new solo exhibition by Swiss artist Athene Galiciadis, Measuring the World. Running from March 18 – May 13, the show will feature a new series of the artist’s painted clay vessels, Empty Sculptures, which will be sold through Arcual, a permission “blockchain for the art world.”
Measuring the World is housed in Kridttårnet, a historic lighthouse building. Each of Galiciadis’s sculptures will be presented on a grid-structured shelving system, which will stabilize the geometric yet organic nature of her designs. Galiciadis paints and draws on her sculptures freehand, occasionally adding figurative elements to her work.
In an interview with Jing Culture & Crypto, Galiciadis noted that “I think of my ‘Empty Sculptures’ as bodies rather than machines. Mainly because I put so much handicraft into the production, from the sculpting to the burning process, to the hand-drawn grid structure.” Galiciadis works between the interplay of something rigid, like a grid or constructed pattern, and the looseness of a hand drawing.
Mamie Beth Cary, director of von Bartha gallery, said in an interview with Jing Culture & Crypto that Galiciadis’s work makes “connections between those art historical movements that had an enduring influence on von Bartha’s program over the past 53 years and contemporary practices such as Athene’s that contribute to making our program so relevant today.”
Athene Galiciadis. Photo: Mario Winkler Company
For Cary, Galiciadis’s work expands on the commonality between current trends and historical periods, “unveiling and adding a deft understanding of the potential of abstract space.”
“We are excited to present Athene Galiciadis’s exhibition Measuring the World,” says Stefan von Bartha, owner and Director of von Bartha, adding, “It is important that we all strive for a more transparent and fairer art world. At von Bartha, we strongly believe that technology plays a crucial role in creating this change, and Arcual offers a smart and easy-to-use solution.”
Arcual is a platform that aims to empower artists, galleries and collectors, through smart contracts on their private blockchain. Launched in 2022, Arcual ensures that both the artist and the gallery that has supported them, benefit from the first sale of the artwork and beyond by offering artists greater participation and involvement in their own careers.
Arcual achieves this and enables automatic payout splits between the gallery and the artist for a consigned artwork, once a payment is approved. Through Arcual, when an artwork is sold or resold, the artist is paid instantly. Resale terms mean that artists continue to financially benefit from their work, beyond its first sale.
Chief Executive Officer of Arcual, Bernadine Bröcker Wieder, tells Jing Culture & Crypto that one of Arcual’s central missions is to offer artists greater participation and involvement in their own careers. Arcual is the “first blockchain ecosystem built by the art community, for the art community, and launched in 2022 with the backing of art world leaders including the LUMA Foundation, MCH Group, and BCG X.”
Added Bröcker Wieder, “I don’t like to think of the digital as separate from the physical. There’s such an obsession with distinguishing the two, whereas, in reality, they already coexist and amplify one another.”
