Schweizer Premodern, New York
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A number of galleries on the Upper East Side are hosting bespoke exhibitions this week in honor of the reopening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.
Closed since 2021, the revamped $70 million Rockefeller Wing, which showcases indigenous art from Oceania, Africa and the ancient Americas, reopens to the public on May 31. The Wing has had an extensive reimagining to create three separate entities separating the distinct regions, and brings a number of new pieces of art to the collection.
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The museum is celebrating this Saturday, May 31, with a special event to mark the reopening, with live music, interactive art-making and gallery discussions inspired by the new collections on display. There are also a number of invitation-only events happening at the museum this week to commemorate the moment.
In addition, a number of private galleries around the neighborhood are showcasing art from the three regions to observe the reopening, including the Throckmorton Gallery on E 57th Street and D’Lan Contemporary on East 81st Street.
Another gallery to showcase indigenous art this week is the Schweizer Premodern, an international gallery with a temporary space on East 82nd Street that specializes in off-market sales of works from premodern Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas.
Schweizer Premodern, New York
Schweizer Premodern, New York
Schweizer Premodern, New York
The gallery’s exhibition displays a number of masterpieces from the regions that demonstrate the unique dialogue between African and Pacific art, as well as four major paintings by the Australian Aboriginal artist Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori. The pieces on display are excellent examples of ethnographic art from the region, giving off an aura of mastery and intrigue in the space.
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On the significance of the reopening of The Met’s Rockefeller Wing, Heinrich Schweizer, the gallery’s founder, said: “World-art enthusiasts the world over have been waiting for the Met’s reopening of its Rockefeller Wing after five years of renovation—a historic moment. To celebrate the return to public view of that vast, magnificent collection of artworks from Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific, we are putting on this exhibition that testifies to the aesthetic genius of premodern societies.”
The Rockefeller Wing was one of the first galleries to showcase art from these regions in the Americas, with examples of ethnographic art only on display in Germany, France and the UK prior to its opening in 1982.
The galleries opened on Wednesday, May 28. Schweizer Premodern is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. until June 7. There is a neighborhood art walk on Saturday, May 31 between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
The full list of exhibitions involved in the showcase are: Mata X Arader Gallery, Jeffrey Myers Eskimo Art, Tambaran Gallery, Schweizer Premodern, D’Lan Contemporary, Jacaranda Gallery, Art For Eternity, Carlo Bella x Colnaghi, Arte Primitivo, Bruce Frank Primitive Art, Throckmorton Galery and Kloman Art.
Each can be contacted online to organize viewings.
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