NEW YORK, NY.- Pace will open a 9,000-square-foot exhibition space in London’s Mayfair neighborhood in October, solidifying its worldwide network of galleries in New York and Beijing. Located at 6 Burlington Gardens, directly north of the Royal Academy of Art’s Burlington House, Pace’s gallery will occupy the west wing of the building, which is owned by the Royal Academy, and will be renovated by architect and Royal Academician Sir David Chipperfield.
“We are delighted to take residence in 6 Burlington Gardens, in the heart of Mayfair and at the crossroads of the international art world,” said Pace president Marc Glimcher. “Pace’s expanded presence means we can reach the global audience that converges in London—from curators to collectors—but, most importantly, it enables us to better support our artists based in Europe and to present the work of important American artists in London, in some cases for the first time in decades.”
The Mayfair gallery further establishes Pace’s presence in London, which already includes a location at 6-10 Lexington Street in Soho. Led by Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst, Pace London will extend Pace’s five-decade tradition of presenting both innovative and scholarly exhibitions. Prior to joining Pace, Ms. Dent-Brocklehurst served as chief international coordinator and curator of exhibitions at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, where she presented exhibitions and projects by Marina Abramovic, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Mark Rothko, and James Turrell, as well as a presentation of the collection of François Pinault. For more than a decade, she was a director at Gagosian Gallery, where she was responsible for the opening of the gallery’s first London space, oversaw a second relocation, and managed the gallery’s London exhibition program.
Pace will inaugurate 6 Burlington Gardens in October with Rothko/Sugimoto: Dark Paintings and Seascapes, an exhibition juxtaposing Mark Rothko’s late black and grey paintings with Hiroshi Sugimoto’s contemporary photographs of the horizon line where sea meets sky. The exhibition marks the first gallery presentation of Rothko’s work in London in nearly fifty years and continues Pace’s series of exhibitions that explore affinities between artists working across decades and mediums. Rothko/Sugimoto: Dark Paintings and Seascapes will be on view from October 4 through November 17. The gallery will be open to the public Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The London gallery extends Pace’s global network, which currently consists of four galleries in New York, including a new location beneath the High Line on Chelsea’s 25th Street that will be unveiled this fall, and a 25,000-square-foot gallery in Beijing that was established in 2008.
Six Burlington Gardens, built in 1870, was designed by Sir James Pennethorne as a headquarters for the University of London. In 2001, the Royal Academy purchased the building, where it has since presented temporary exhibitions. The Academy recently embarked on a project to renovate the east wing of the building to create an auditorium, café, and additional exhibition space for the museum.
Stirling Prize-winning architect Sir David Chipperfield has been retained by Pace to renovate its Mayfair gallery in conjunction with the Royal Academy’s larger master plan. David Chipperfield Architects’ recent museum projects include the Neues Museum, Berlin; Turner Contemporary, Margate, U.K.; and Hepworth Wakefield, North Yorkshire, U.K. He is the curator of the 2012 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
