Incollect Magazine - Issue 4

Incollect Magazine 89 2023 “It is going to be pretty exciting,” says Lewis Wexler, as he walks me through plans for a massive new gallery in Philadelphia slated to open in spring 2023 — an 11,000 square foot former pretzel factory at 1811 Frankford Avenue in the edgy Fishtown neighborhood. The new gallery building is designed by DIGSAU, the architecture firm that recently designed the new home of The Clay Studio, a ceramics atelier, educational and exhibition space in Philadelphia’s Kensington area. Lewis can’t wait to talk about the atrium. “The first floor will have exhibition space and storage. The exhibition space is not super large but we can showcase pieces in a more interesting way — we are cutting a hole in the ceiling to create a 35 foot high floor to ceiling central exhibition space, with offices up on the second floor. This will allow us to show virtually anything — a large sculpture or lighting from ceiling to floor.” The roof is on the building and right now Wexler says they are pouring the concrete floors. “Concrete floors mean we won’t have to worry about a weight limitation for exhibition objects,” he says. The current gallery has a wooden floor and basement storage, meaning there is a weight restriction. “With the new concrete floor we have way more latitude on what we can show and no limitations on the scale.” In designing and building the new expanded space, Wexler says he was responding in part to the needs of his artists. But also issuing them a challenge. “We are doing it to accommodate the scale of much new work, but also giving artists an opportunity to do pieces that can scale up and that we wouldn’t have been able to show previously,” he says, adding “lighting in particular has become more ambitious in scale and materials.” He hopes that the space will inspire artists to create things that are “impactful.” Wexler Gallery opened in 2000 in Philadelphia and in 2018 expanded its presence to New York with a gallery in the New Previous page and Above: Forbidden Garden, curated by Rodney Lawrence, September-December 2022, Wexler Gallery New York.