Will gallerists outsize their galleries? “No, never,” says Benjamin Trigano, considering the endless process of discovering new talent, new productions, new shows that comes with his field of work. In terms of physical space, though, the founder of Los Angeles-based M+B does admit that there may be “more meaningful ways” to experience art than the white cube we know.
While M+B’s roster continues to progress, from Haitian painter Didier William to Riot Grrrl photographer Whitney Hubbs, the gallery’s two West Hollywood outposts do reflect their contemporaries — Other art sanctuaries with even light and blank walls are as immaculate and non-intrusive as they are. It allows the visitor to gaze at the work undisturbed, but it can also be a bit tedious at times. “In a lot of places, it feels like you’re in and out,” agrees Trigano, who has moved to Paris and owns the Philippe Starck-designed millennium boutique hotel chain Mama Shelter. “Right now, I’m trying to do something different.”
During a fitting window between the Milan art fair Miart and Salone del Mobile last month, Trigano unexpectedly opened Casa The Gates of MB, a cozy apartment concept gallery, is located in the city’s Magenta district, but it’s by no means bare. “We are a gallery, but not a real gallery,” he clarified of the minimalist family unit in Milan, where Vienna-based Hungarian painter Eva Beresin Expressionist paintings can have a good time in a mid-century salon furnished with Bauhaus sofas and emerald-coloured mirrored coffee tables. “You can be there for 30 minutes or three hours,” said the gallerist, who welcomes appointment-only customers to chat with them and have a fresh glass by season Italian-style condensed coffee. “The fact that it happened at the same time as Domo Damo is purely coincidental.” Domo Damo is other Hybrid Family Secret Trigano is finally ready to be revealed on the other side of the world, in São Paulo, Brazil .
Photo: Franco Amendola
30303030
