Frank Gehry: new sculpture and prints at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York

It’s hard to imagine Frank Gehry having any more surprises left up his sleeve, yet the opening of an exhibition of new works from the starchitect at Joni Moisant Weyl gallery in New York last week proved us to be very wrong.

Over the last decade, Gehry has been creating prints and sculptures with the Los Angeles-based artists’ workshop Gemini G.E.L. The abbreviation stands for Graphic Editions Limited, and the workshop has been challenging artists to draw or carve directly onto printing elements since its inception in 1966.

Joni Moisant Weyl’s exhibition brings together a survey of Gehry’s previous works, including lithograph prints of both past and unrealized architectural projects that offer a rare glimpse into the architect’s creative process. In most cases, Gehry approaches each project with a sketch, which then undergoes several rounds of refinement before they take a three-dimensional form.

While many of the works on display don’t quite count as preparatory sketches, it is easy to spot the forms of the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi, the IAC building in New York and the Walt Disney concert hall in Los Angeles, amongst others.

The gallery, which has been Gemini’s East Coast platform since 1984, also debuts a new resin sculpture titled ’Memory of Sophie Calle’s Flower’, which refers to the telephone booth Gehry created with the conceptual artist in 2006 and had installed on a bridge stretching across the River Seine in Paris.  

To do the works their due justice, the gallery enlisted the expertise of their architects Stamberg Aferiat + Associates to design the exhibition. The pair chose to dress the gallery walls in vibrant orange, making it the perfect backdrop for the large vinyl sketch of Gehry’s iconic Marques de Riscal Winery.