Samsung's betting that TVs belong in galleries - and galleries belong on TVs. At Art Basel in Basel this week, the electronics giant showcased its Art TV lineup alongside a custom collaboration with visual artist Daniel Arsham, who designed a limited bezel for The Frame Pro. The move puts Samsung's Art Store platform - now hosting 5,000+ works from 800 artists - in front of collectors and curators as the company positions screens as both display tech and home décor.
Samsung just turned a TV into a gallery wall - literally. At this year's Art Basel in Basel, the world's premier contemporary art fair, Samsung Electronics positioned itself as more than a display maker. The company served as the event's Official Art TV provider, showcasing its 2026 Art TV lineup to an audience that usually thinks about originals, not pixels.
The centerpiece was a collaboration with Daniel Arsham, Samsung's newly minted 2026 Art TV Ambassador. Arsham, known for his "fictional archaeology" work that imagines everyday objects as future relics, designed a custom bezel for The Frame Pro. Made with stone-like material featuring raised topographical textures, the bezel brings Arsham's sculptural language to the television frame itself. Surrounding wallpaper developed from 3D scans of his studio sculptures completed the installation.
"An artist's job is to interpret everyday life through their own lens," Arsham said during a June 17 book signing at the Samsung Art Store Lounge. "When viewers see that perspective, it creates a shared experience and a deeper connection."
But the real story is what's on the screens. Samsung Art Store, the company's digital art platform, has quietly grown into a catalog of more than 5,000 4K artworks from 800+ artists and 80+ partners including museums and galleries. Available via subscription across Samsung's 2026 Art TV lineup - including Micro RGB, select OLED models (S95H globally, S99H in Europe), The Frame Pro, and The Frame - the service is Samsung's play for the space between streaming entertainment and home décor.
At Basel, Samsung translated that digital experience into a physical one. The Samsung Art Store Lounge featured an interactive survey where visitors answered questions about their visual preferences. Their responses fed into a tablet-based system that matched them to one of four curated themes: Geometric, Surreal, Vibrant, or Painterly. Once scanned, the "Art Wall" - a gallery installation of Samsung displays - showed artworks matching each visitor's theme.
"I was surprised by how well the Vibrant theme matched my taste," one attendee noted. "The colors looked so rich on the Samsung Art TVs. I could picture one of those pieces bringing so much energy into my home."
Between sessions, the Art Wall previewed the ABB 2026 Collection, 24 works by Swiss and Swiss-based artists from eight galleries exhibiting at the fair. The collection, curated exclusively for Samsung Art Store, offers a snapshot of Basel's regional art scene across different generations and styles. It's now available to Samsung Art TV users through the platform.
Samsung extended the Basel activation with "Art Night with Samsung Art TV" at Gare du Nord, where Arsham joined Karim Crippa, Director of Art Basel Paris, and Daria Greene, Head of Content and Curation for Samsung Art Store, for a panel discussion moderated by content creator Daniel Fanslau. The conversation centered on how artistic sensibility develops and how digital platforms can bring curatorial choices into everyday spaces.
The Art Basel presence isn't Samsung's first move into the art world, but it signals how the company sees premium TV positioning evolving. While competitors focus on specs like brightness and refresh rates, Samsung's betting that some buyers want screens that disappear into their environment when not in use - or better yet, become part of the décor.
The Frame line, which launched years ago with the premise of displaying art when idle, has evolved from novelty to product line. The Pro model adds enhanced picture quality and the option for custom bezels like Arsham's collaboration. Samsung Art Store provides the content library that makes the concept work daily.
From June 18 to 21, Art Basel in Basel brought together 290 galleries from 43 countries and territories, drawing the global art establishment to Messe Basel. For Samsung, the event offered direct access to an audience that values aesthetics and is willing to pay for them - exactly the demographic premium TV makers are chasing.
Whether collectors and design-conscious buyers see TVs as legitimate art displays or just well-marketed screens remains the question. But Samsung's clearly betting that the line between digital display and physical gallery is blurring, one frame at a time.
Samsung's Art Basel presence is part brand activation, part product showcase, and part bet on where premium TVs are headed. By partnering with Daniel Arsham and positioning Art Store's 5,000-work catalog in front of the art world elite, Samsung's pushing the idea that screens can serve dual purposes - entertainment when you want it, gallery when you don't. Whether that resonates beyond marketing remains to be seen, but it's a clear signal that Samsung sees the high-end TV market as much about lifestyle positioning as picture quality. For now, The Frame Pro and Art Store give Samsung a differentiated pitch in a crowded market. The question is whether buyers see art on a screen as decoration or just another feature.
