7,000 editions sold out in 62 seconds Forbes 30 Under 30 - Art & Style 2023 TRLab raises $9.2M Cai Guo-Qiang · Calder · Vogue · Rhizome Apollo 40 Under 40 Asia Pacific 7,000 editions sold out in 62 seconds Forbes 30 Under 30 - Art & Style 2023 TRLab raises $9.2M Cai Guo-Qiang · Calder · Vogue · Rhizome Apollo 40 Under 40 Asia Pacific

Co-Founder & CEO / TRLab

Audrey Ou

She sells fireworks that explode on a screen, and museums that live on a blockchain. The gallery and the code, in one person.

Founder Executive Art + Web3 Guggenheim Councils

Audrey Ou. The historian who decided the next museum would boot up, not open up.

Who she is now

A platform that asks you to know the artist before you bid

Most NFT platforms wanted your wallet open and your questions closed. Audrey Ou built the opposite. At TRLab, the curated Web3 platform she co-founded in 2021, early drops asked buyers to prove they knew something about the artist before they were allowed to place a bid. It was a filter for collectors over flippers, and a statement of intent: this would be the art world's standards, running on the blockchain's rails.

Ou is the co-founder and CEO. Her partner is Xin Li-Cohen, the deputy chairman of Christie's Asia. Between the auction house and the chain, they set out to do something the crypto rush mostly skipped - take blue-chip artists and estates seriously, and bring their audiences along with care. "TRLab specializes in using the capabilities of Web3 and blockchain technology to create online experiences that educate people and allow them to participate interactively with art in a new way," Ou has said, "rather than simply selling NFT art."

The distinction matters to her. The product is not a JPEG with a price tag. It is, in her words, a "customized digital journey" through an artist's archive - context first, transaction second. That instinct is why TRLab ended up working with names that traditional collectors recognize and Web3 natives covet at the same time.

62s

to sell out 7,000 editions

$9.2M

total funding raised

2021

TRLab founded

10K

followers on one drop

The strange specific

You bought a packet. Then you lit it.

"Your Daytime Fireworks" was a 45-day collaboration with Cai Guo-Qiang, the artist who paints with gunpowder. Instead of handing over a finished image, TRLab handed over a firework packet. Collectors set it off, and the explosion revealed one of 90 artworks.

All 7,000 editions sold out in 62 seconds. The project pulled in 10,000 followers worldwide and was shortlisted for the 2022 Lumen Prize for Art and Technology. It was the proof of Ou's thesis: give people a ritual, not a receipt, and they show up.

It helped that Cai was not a stranger to her. Ou's path into contemporary art started at home - her family's involvement with Shanghai's Rockbund Art Museum since 2010 put her alongside artists like Cai early, and on projects like the Hugo Boss Asia Art Project. She did not parachute into the art world for the NFT boom. She grew up inside it.

Drop / 2022

Your Daytime Fireworks

A 45-day interactive NFT journey with Cai Guo-Qiang. Buy a firework packet, set it off, reveal one of 90 artworks. 7,000 editions, gone in 62 seconds. Shortlisted, 2022 Lumen Prize.

The roster

Blue-chip art, on-chain

Estate

Alexander Calder

TRLab worked with the Calder Foundation to bring the celebrated mobile-maker into the digital realm - a careful, archive-led entry for an artist far older than the blockchain.

Brand

Vogue

A collaboration that put a fashion institution's name on a TRLab NFT collection, the kind of crossover Ou predicted would define the medium's next wave.

Preservation

Rhizome · SEED

A campaign with Rhizome built around digital art's pioneers - a free, interactive journey through an archive. Ou called it "a memento of what it means to be a part of Rhizome."

The arc

From a museum family to the chain

2010

Family begins its involvement with Shanghai's Rockbund Art Museum; Ou assists with exhibitions of artists including Cai Guo-Qiang and the Hugo Boss Asia Art Project.

Pre-'21

Entrepreneur in residence at Olive Capital, focused on consumer technology.

2021

Co-founds TRLab with Xin Li-Cohen, deputy chairman of Christie's Asia.

2022

Launches "Your Daytime Fireworks"; raises $4.2M; named to Apollo 40 Under 40 and Tatler Gen.T; earns her M.S. from Columbia.

2023

Named to Forbes 30 Under 30, Art & Style; TRLab closes a $5M seed round led by Hivemind Capital and OKX Ventures.

The toolkit

History, then analytics

Ou read History at Princeton, then went back for an M.S. in Applied Analytics at Columbia, finishing in 2022 - while building a company. It is an unusual pair of degrees, and it explains a lot. She can argue an artist's place in a century and read the data on who is buying. Gallery talk and spreadsheet talk, fluently, in the same meeting.

She does not work alone in the institutional world either. Ou sits on two committees at the Guggenheim in New York: the Asian Art Council and the Young Collectors Council. The honors followed the work - Apollo's 40 Under 40 for Asia Pacific, Tatler Asia's Gen.T, and the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Art & Style.

In her words

On a market still finding its shape

The NFT art market is still in its infancy, and this is no time to proclaim or accept a one-size-fits-all position.

This year, I see NFTs as a blank slate for exploration.

Authenticity and legitimacy are incredibly important to all artists.

The gap will narrow as new NFTs pull in new buyers from the physical market.

Fun & insightful

Four things that explain her

◆

A Princeton historian who went back for a Columbia data degree - she reads the art world in both centuries and spreadsheets.

◆

Her co-founder, Xin Li-Cohen, is deputy chairman of Christie's Asia - a foot in the auction house and a foot in the chain.

◆

The Cai Guo-Qiang drop sold out faster than you can read its title - 7,000 editions in 62 seconds.

◆

She holds seats on two Guggenheim councils: Asian Art and Young Collectors.