Gallery as Museum, Art Dealer as Curator:
“Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America, attributed a spate of gallery renovations and expansions over the last few years to a growing need among artists for larger spaces. “All kinds of sculpture relates to the architecture,” she said in a recent interview. “There’s a great deal of film and video. The work has gotten very large, and galleries are responding to that.”
With so many contemporary artists producing work that is either monumental or site-specific, dealers this season are assuming a role once deemed the exclusive right of museums, that of providing spectacular destinations for viewing art.
This weekend, for example, Sean Kelly is scheduled to unveil a 22,000-square-foot gallery designed by the architect Toshiko Mori with Mr. Gormley’s exhibit “Bodyspace.” Bisecting the main space of the gallery, a single sculpture, “Signal,” presents what the artist has called “a drawing in sculpture,” made of 6-millimeter mild steel line.”