Art galleries run in David Totah’s family. His uncle founded the eponymous Edward Totah Gallery in London in the late 1970s and his father started Albert Totah’s gallery on SoHo’s Wooster Street in the 1980s. This past February, Totah opened his self-titled space on Stanton Street in New York’s Lower East Side, which is currently featuring a series of watercolours by the late Lauretta Vinciarelli, called 'Light Unveiled'. Vinciarelli was incredibly active in the art and architectural avant garde community as a professor at Columbia University and as Donald Judd’s partner. In fact, Totah later discovered that she taught the gallery’s architect, Raffaella Bortoluzzi.
Vinciarelli’s watercolours span from 1990 to 2007 and evoke similar boundary-stretching explorations of space, light and dimension as James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson and Dan Flavin. However, her ability to contrast precise lines with colour saturations and gradient washes creates a wholly unique effect.
‘I was particularly drawn to the ethereal aspects of her later works,’ says Totah. ‘Lauretta was too often referred to as Donald Judd's companion of 12 years, or as a much respected professor of architecture. I strongly believe that she transcends those definitions and is a truly iconoclastic artist with an unusual talent to express her internal spiritual journey.’
Totah’s focus on communication and transcendence expands well beyond 'Light Unveiled'; they are guiding principles for his new space, which he plans to grow into a ‘cultural hub’. He recently commissioned painter and street artist Kenny Scharf to create a mural on the storefront’s security gates – a nod to Scharf’s influence in the nearby East Village and Totah’s family (his uncle was familiar with the artist and showed his work). He also built a small stage below the gallery to host talks, film screenings and performance art.
‘We believe in [the] alchemy between artist and gallerist and in its power to give birth to inspiring projects,’ Totah concludes.
Pictured: Red Room Study 4 and Red Room Study 5
Vinciarelli’s watercolours span the period 1990–2007 and evoke similar boundary-stretching explorations of space, light and dimension as James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson and Dan Flavin.
Pictured: Night #9, #5, #1 and #4
‘Lauretta was too often referred to as Donald Judd's companion of 12 years, or as a much respected professor of architecture. I strongly believe that she transcends those definitions and is a truly iconoclastic artist with an unusual talent to express her internal spiritual journey,’ says Totah.
Pictured: Study in Blue, triptych
Vinciarelli's ability to contrast precise lines with colour saturations and gradient washes creates a wholly unique effect.
Pictured: Scharf's right gate design
Totah also commissioned painter and street artist Kenny Scharf to create a mural on the storefront’s security gates.
Pictured: Scharf's left gate design
It's a nod to Scharf’s influence in the nearby East Village and Totah’s family (his uncle was familiar with the artist and showed his work).
INFORMATION
’Light Unveiled’ is on view until 18 September. For more information, visit the Totah Gallery’s website
ADDRESS
Totah Gallery
183 Stanton Street
New York, NY 10002
-
A celestial New York exhibition showcases Roman and Williams’ mastery of lightingLauded design studio Roman and Williams is exhibiting 100 variations of its lighting ‘family tree’ inside a historic Tribeca space
-
‘He immortalised the birth of the supermodel’: inside Dior’s career-spanning retrospective of photographer Peter LindberghOlivier Flaviano, curator and head of Paris’ La Galerie Dior, talks us through a new Peter Lindbergh retrospective, which celebrates the seminal German photographer’s longtime relationship with the French house
-
Take a bite: Laila Gohar and The Luxury Collection’s ‘Cakes & Candles’ are a sweet treat for the sensesLaila Gohar’s six cake-inspired candles draw on The Luxury Collection’s hotels around the world – where guests can enjoy matching edible confections
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next DoorThe Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New YorkViolet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990sNew York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black menThe late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in PhiladelphiaArtist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
