Take a Sneak Peek Inside Pace Gallery’s Giant-Sized New Chelsea Headquarters, aka ‘Super Pace’

Pace gallery has long been one of the
biggest of all international gallery chains. But this week, it puts
an exclamation point next to its mega-gallery status as it
officially debuts its massive, custom-built eight-story new
headquarters in West Chelsea, featuring multiple floors full of
blue chip art. Call it “Super Pace.”

Dozens of media and art world denizens were on hand Tuesday for
the much-anticipated first glimpse of the new space. The event was
introduced with remarks from CEO and president Marc Glimcher,
founder Arne Glimcher, and recent hires who will oversee the
buzzed-about new multidisciplinary program known as Pace Live.

“Artists made this building possible,” said Marc Glimcher. “We
want people to come and take their time. We want to take them back
to the earlier part of this century so they can see the
future.”

The building was designed by Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture
DPC, and aspires to be more of an art center than an art gallery.
The new Pace’s 3rd floor has the densest cluster of exhibitions,
including a large new panoramic work by David Hockney, in one
gallery, and black-and-white photos by Peter Hujar, in another.
Also sharing the 3rd floor is a gallery dedicated to Pace African &
Oceanic Art, the gallery’s franchise focusing on art from those two
regions (formerly known by the unfortunate name “Pace
Primitive.”)

The 2nd floor galleries are completely occupied by a series of
colorful abstract paintings by the young New York-based painter
Loie Hollowell, who is given more space than either of the more
famous blue-chip artists on the floor above.

The ground floor centers on a nicely installed show dedicated to
master modernist and Pace staple Alexander Calder. In addition to
several of his beloved mobiles, the show welcomes visitors with an
early Surrealist film clip of the artist’s work, only recently
discovered. Another notable work is Double Arc and
Sphere (1932). The small work was the first the
American sculptor sold to a museum, specifically the Berkshire
Museum. It was reacquired by the Calder
Foundation as part of the much-watched drama of the museum’s
deaccessioning of parts of its collection, and now finds its way to
Pace as an apt symbol of a gallery whose ambitions rival that of
most museums.

One of the new Pace’s undoubted highlights, a 6th floor roof
terrace, is currently empty. It will showcase major pieces by
Louise Nevelson, Lynda Benglis, Joel Shapiro, and other Pace
artists. In the meantime, it offers an impressive view of
surrounding Chelsea.

The 7th floor galleries, meanwhile, open with a suite of glass
chandeliers by Fred Wilson, and doubles as a 150-seat theater. At
the press launch, with windows looking out on the new skyscrapers
of Hudson Yards behind her, senior director and curator Andria
Hickey provided information about programming for Pace Live, which
promises to animate the space. Related events will
include music, dance, film, and performance and are mostly
free and open to the public. (In cases where tickets are sold,
Hickey said, the proceeds will go to dedicated nonprofits.)

Plans for the inaugural Pace Live season include a
week-long screening of video works and films that document
leading conceptual artist Song Dong’s ongoing
performance work; Cinémathèque de Tanger, a film club night
curated by multidisciplinary artist Yto Barrada, who founded
the eponymous independent cinema in Tangier, Morocco (and who
is also showing prints on the first floor in Pace’s library); an
installation and performance by Torkwase Dyson, presented in
collaboration with the Performa 19 Biennial; and a musical
performance produced by French composer Éliane Radigue,
co-presented with Blank Forms.

Pace is boasting talent to match its showy new HQ. Hickey will
work closely with Mark Beasley, former curator of media and
performance art at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, whom
Pace hired as curatorial director of the Live program this past
summer. Two additional new hires were announced today: Oliver
Shultz and Michaëla Mohrmann, as curatorial director and associate
curatorial director, respectively. Shultz previously worked in the
curatorial department at MoMA PS1. Mohrmann was previously an
Andrew W. Mellon museum research consortium fellow at MoMA,
focusing on exhibitions of Latin American art.

But for now, the star is the space itself, in all its
museum-like glory. Below, get a sense of what the new Pace has to
offer:

The post Take a Sneak Peek Inside Pace Gallery’s Giant-Sized
New Chelsea Headquarters, aka ‘Super Pace’ appeared first on
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