INSIDE JOB

Galerie Gmurzynska is known for its statement booths at art fairs. Here are some highlights from previous years

BAZ LUHRMANN Among the gallery’s most talked-about presentations at Art Basel in Miami Beach was its booth created by director Baz Luhrmann and designer Catherine Martin in 2014, which featured 20th century masterworks. It was cheekily titled A Kid Could Do That, with the words scrawled on a blackboard. The walls were olive green, the floors wooden, and a large farmhouse-style wooden table was placed inside. Luhrmann also screened an interpretation of film footage of a 1930s performance by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo with a stage set designed by Joan Miró.

CLAUDE RUIZ-PICASSO Ruiz-picasso designed perhaps the gallery’s boldest booth in 1998 for the Madrid art fair ARCO. He altered the very architecture of the space, creating a precariously tilted red cube inside of which works by Russian artists were hung. “People were completely astounded,” says Ruiz-picasso. “No one had ever done anything funny at a fair like this. Everything was always white cubes.” ZAHA HADID The late architect collaborated with Gmurzynska on multiple projects, including the 2016 Kurt Schwitters retrospective in Zurich. Hadid transformed the gallery into a cavernous space with swooping curvilinear lines. In 2010 for Art Basel in Miami Beach, she designed what appeared to be an explosion of black crystalline spears bursting from the gallery booth. Inside, the exhibition explored Hadid’s relationship with the Russian avant-garde.