There has never been a gallery that could satisfy any gallerygoer all the time, and even those who have been dismayed by the spectacles engineered by Dan Colen, Damien Hirst, and Mike Kelley at Gagosian in recent years will point out that Gagosian has also
mounted beautiful exhibitions of the sculpture of David Smith, and shows of paintings by Picasso and Monet that are routinely and quite accurately described as «museum quality.»
Not exact matches
Curiously some of the commercial galleries that represent the apotheosis of the contemporary art industry and market, such as, here in NY, Gagosian and Zwirner, have been able to
mount museum quality shows the past few years, including for example excellent Picasso and Frankenthaler
exhibitions at Gagosian and the recent
exhibition of Ad Reinhardt's work at Zwirner, in spaces that either are as
beautiful as any museum or that are just functional in a good way, with few frills, just good walls and space.
As you enter the
exhibition space located in a
beautiful brick building, you find yourself confronted with dark and delicate portraits
mounted with a sense of architectural narrative that highlights the already clear references to traditional modern painting, specially Braque's cubism and Arcimboldo's surreal portraits of flowers and fruits.
The gallery's
exhibitions are
mounted in 3,500 square feet of modern and highly flexible space, located across a
beautiful plaza from the College's Fields Center for the Visual Arts.
In The Colonies (2016), his first solo
exhibition at MoMA, Beloufa presents an immersive installation of kinetic sculptures and video projection; CCTV cameras with Raspberry Pi
mounts (small inexpensive CPUs) and speakers; walls made from foam and resin; plastic bags with crushed beer and soda cans; seating areas made from steel, pleather, and wood; and two videos — centered around his 2011 video People's Passion, lifestyle,
beautiful wine, gigantic glass towers, all surrounded by water.