Pace gallery plans to open a permanent space in Palo Alto, the northern Californian city where some of the world’s leading technology companies are based. The gallery has operated a pop-up space in neighbouring Menlo Park for the past two years, but is now looking for a permanent home to move into after its temporary space is demolished in December 2016.
“If you are trying to break into the market of Silicon Valley, you’re doomed,” says Marc Glimcher, Pace’s president. “But if you want to be part of the community, they are very welcoming.”
The gallery is also launching a new programme, Pace Art & Technology, which will make its debut in California with a presentation of digital work by TeamLab in February and an immersive installation by Random International in autumn. Both will take place in its Menlo Park space.
“I am fascinated by the rise of the art and technology collective and what it means for the evolution of art,” Glimcher says, adding that the programme will involve artists that the gallery does not formally represent.
The new venture will require a non-traditional approach, Glimcher says. Many of the projects will take place in pop-up spaces internationally rather than in Pace’s permanent venues in New York, London and Beijing. “Trying to impose all those rules of the art world on this new thing would be ridiculous,” he says. “The old rules do not always apply.”
