ART
GALLERIST MARCELO ZIMMLER UPSILON GALLERY OPENS NEW SPACE By Bennett Marcus Marcelo Zimmler in front of art by Osvaldo Mariscotti
U
psilon Gallery has expanded in Manhattan, with a new 2,000-square-foot space at 23 East 67th Street, in addition to its gallery at 146 West 57th Street. Upsilon specializes in international postwar and contemporary art, with a focus on rediscovering overlooked artists within a historical scope. OSVALDO MARISCOTTI The new UES space launched with a solo exhibition of Osvaldo Mariscotti’s paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works. The show focused on the artist’s study of symbols and the development of language. “Osvaldo is a proper artist’s artist,” Marcelo Zimmler says. “He likes to lock himself up in the studio and paint all day.” BRITISH ARTIST CLYDE HOPKINS The gallery’s second show, Chaunticlere: Paintings from the 1980s, which opened this spring, highlights the work of the late British artist Clyde Hopkins. In London, Upsilon’s director is Greg Rook, an established art advisor, collections manager, university lecturer, and artist. “He’s super knowledgeable, especially when it comes to U.K. artists,” says Zimmler. Rook worked with the estate of the British artist Clyde Hopkins to bring the important show to Upsilon’s newest space.
Hopkins, who died in 2018, has work in the permanent collection of the Tate. His work has also been exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery, Salisbury Art Centre, and Francis Graham-Dixon in London, among many others. “This is the kind of high-caliber work that we’re dealing with,” Zimmler says. CIRCUITOUS ROUTE TO THE ART WORLD Upsilon Gallery, which launched in 2014, also has representatives in Miami and London. Its founder, Marcelo Zimmler, had a somewhat unusual path to discovering his passion for art and becoming a gallerist. While studying computer science at Pace University in New York, Zimmler’s plan was a graduate program in applied math followed by a career in academia. A study-abroad program in London, where he met a lot of entrepreneurial characters and participated in competitions for business plans, upended those plans. “Coming into London, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was already preparing for the GREs,” Zimmler says. “Then it all flipped upside down. I didn’t like it anymore. I knew it wasn’t my passion.” A museum buff, he’d always been interested in the arts, and once back in New York, he immersed himself in the world of fine art, and found he loved it. More kismet followed once he’d graduated: He met Osvaldo Mariscotti, “I offered to help him,” says Zimmler, “because he needed exposure.” Zimmler designed a website, which received a good response, and built the business from there, reaching out to art publications and initiating collaborations with several art groups within the United States and Europe. “Eventually I put together an e-commerce site and a number of applications that combined Mariscotti’s aesthetics with things like sound synthesis and augmented reality to take the experiential aspect of the artwork to a new level. The work we did ten years ago was highly experimental, which in turn made it very exciting.” Social Life
