Lobus Expands Equity Management Platform With Launch of Cultural Innovation Lab Run by Lucien Smith

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lobus https://lobus.io/, the leading art equity-management platform, is launching a Cultural Innovation Lab led by contemporary artist-entrepreneur Lucien Smith to further support the infrastructure for the evolving needs of the art industry as it meets the new realities of Web3.

The newly formed Cultural Innovation Lab will be led by Smith and is dedicated to building best-in-class technology products for today's artists, including smart contracts with equity and royalty capabilities, minting of physical assets to NFTs and verified-object authentication. Visionary artists will be invited to join the lab as cultural innovators. Events throughout the year, which will also be open to the public, will bring artists together for creative exchange and dialogue. The new tools are designed to help artists and their galleries retain ownership and equity in art work and track ownership in perpetuity.

"Our vision for Lobus has always been around creating transparency in an antiquated and opaque industry that has been highly underserved, particularly in terms of delivering economic control to artists. The developments of the last 18 months around NFTs and smart contracts are the greatest unlock on ownership that art has seen in its history," said Sarah Wendell Sherrill, CEO and co-founder of Lobus.

"The music and film industry have put the artists in economic control, and NFTs are doing the same for the art world by giving artists the ability to retain equity and participate in the upside of their work. Lucien is a visionary in this field, having experienced first hand the imbalance of economic control when the secondary markets are capturing the upside of value creation. There's no one better positioned to bring the needs of today's artists to the forefront of technical product development," said Wendell Sherill. 

Lucien Smith is a multidisciplinary artist. Shortly after earning a degree in Fine Arts from The Cooper Union — his mostly abstract paintings earned him international acclaim. Following what seemed like overnight success, Smith battled with some of the pitfalls of gaining notoriety so early - high profile collectors bought his works for $20,000 and 18 months later were selling at auction for upwards of $400,000. Smith joins Lobus' rapidly expanding team across art, finance and technology, from Christie's, Lazard, Dropbox, Google, Carta and Blend.

"As an artist and an advocate for young artists, it's thrilling to join Lobus to create a solution for the flawed system that is the art market. At Lobus, we will be giving artists an entry point into the system through digital and physical means, be it Lobus' infrastructure or the programming of the Cultural Innovation Lab."

"The launch of Cultural Innovation Lab with a focus on artist equity is a natural progression of the financial infrastructure products we offer that support liquidity and is transforming an asset class already in transition," said Lobus co-founder Lori Hotz.

Smart contracts will soon join the Lobus suite of asset management tools, which includes dynamic market pricing, portfolio analytics, intelligent object matching, customized reporting, enterprise collaboration, relationship management, and digital inventory, among other services. Lobus, which uses enterprise-level security, will verify each sale that uses a smart contract.

About Lobus
Lobus is the leading equity management platform for art. Artists and collectors are able to manage their assets  with confidence through a unified, enterprise-grade system. Lobus manages more than $7B in assets for its users. With offices in San Francisco and New York, Lobus has raised $7M led by Upside Partnership, Franklin Templeton, and individuals including Rob Hayes and Troy Carter. For more information visit http://lobus.io

Lucien Smith Bio
Born in Los Angeles, Lucien Smith is a contemporary artist named "the art world wunderkind" by the New York Times and featured twice in Forbes' 30 under 30 in 2013 and 2014. Smith's work has been exhibited at Gagosian, Skarstedt, Salon 94, and many other galleries around the world. In 2014, Artsy estimated his work generated $3.7M in auction, driven largely by collectors who viewed his emerging work as investment-ready fare. Most recently, Lucien founded Serving the People, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide young artists with opportunity and support. Smith received his BFA from Cooper Union in 2011, and lives and works in NYC and Montauk, NY.

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SOURCE Lobus

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