R. H. Quaytman, O Tópico, Chapter 27 (2014); installation view, Barbara Gladstone Gallery
WHILE AT ART Basel Miami Beach, a week ago, I found myself encouraging people to join me on my annual April pilgrimage to Inhotim -- the legendary art park created by Bernardo Paz, in the remote Brazilian town of Brumadinho -- followed by a visit to São Paulo's SP-Arte art fair. More than four times the size of New York's Central Park, Inhotim is filled with tropical botanical wonder and more than 40 art-filled buildings, many devoted to a single artist. And each year seems to bring a new pavilion's opening.
These pavilion projects take years to develop. Right now, in Chelsea you can see an Inhotim pavilion in utero. Like a minimalist Nautilus shell, R. H. Quaytman's current exhibition O Tópico, Chapter 27 at Barbara Gladstone's 21st Street space is stunningly conceived as a permanent outdoor pavilion featuring a cycle of mostly abstract paintings to be installed a new building designed by architect Solveig Fernlund.
Quaytman is well known for creating bodies of work that conceptually echo chapters of a book. O Tópico, Chapter 27 is her latest chapter, initiated in 2012 after the artist was invited to propose a permanent installation of paintings for Inhotim. The exhibition and the Fernlund building are based on a Fibonacci sequence and the golden spiral.
R. H. Quaytman's O Tópico, Chapter 27
Now through December 20
Barbara Gladstone Gallery
530 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011