Grant Selwyn Fine Art Gallery
New York, New York

Grant Selwyn Fine Art, occupying a 2500 square-foot, second floor space, is visible to the city through its 25-foot-wide, full-height facade window. The gallery is an intimate yet flexible environment for the exhibition of contemporary painting, sculpture, and works on paper. The interior was completely reconfigured to maximize the exhibition area while providing the required space for offices, library, archive, and art storage. A full-height pivot wall at the north end of the gallery, which rotates 360 degrees on a single ball-bearing mechanism, creates an intimate viewing area within the confines of the main gallery. A 25-foot-long, honed New York bluestone window bench sitting opposite the pivot wall at the front of the gallery, appears as if inserted into the building’s interior facade. The bench provides both a viewing position for the visitor and a base for small-scale sculpture, providing a connection between the art, viewer and the activity of the street below.

Two specially-designed lighting systems illuminate the space itself and the artwork within. A continuous light cove wraps around the entire gallery, creating a halo effect in which the ceiling appears to float in the 12-foot-high space. This is perceived from within the space as well as from the street below, in which one can view the plane of the floating ceiling in relation to the entire gallery. In the second system, recessed fixtures­Deach containing three HID lamps­Dcan be focused individually to provide flexible lighting for any artwork that may be placed in the space.

The library/archive space is designed to be a working environment for the employees as well as a place of reference for the client. A full height 6-foot-long pocket door connects or divides the library and the art storage space beyond.