Pace Gallery, a leading international contemporary art exhibition space, has opened a permanent gallery in Palo Alto, just off University Avenue.
Pace Gallery is a global art gallery empire, based in New York City and maintaining outposts in London, Paris, Beijing and Hong Kong.
The opening reception was held on April 27, featuring work by renowned artist James Turrell. This 3,200-square-foot location is the first permanent Pace Gallery on the West Coast. The Los Angeles-based artist Turrell investigates color, light, perception and space. The inaugural exhibition features the Reflective Hologram and Wide Glass Series.
By 4 p.m., a line of eager viewers were already wrapped around the corner. Pace Gallery workers were still installing the front doors.
Turrell uses a wall of LED light tiles that subtly change and morph. Viewers were hypnotized.
“Light connects us,” said Griselda Lopez, a teacher in San Jose and artist. “You can feel it in the room. No one here is angry. It’s very subdued.”
The two-room gallery was cozy and crowded for this opening reception.
“The space complements the work,” Lopez said. She currently works in light installations and the creation of space within space.
Bay Area painter Katie Morton, had seen Turrell’s work before: “With his other light structures, it’s much more of an experiential environment.” Here however, Morton said that what “he’s creating here feels more illusionistic, where you walk into a space and you actually can’t tell how it’s being created.”
Turrell’s work has been featured in more than ninety international public collections and 160 solo exhibitions worldwide since 1967. This exhibition will be open to the public through July 30.
