Sperone's new mid-block glass building. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

We visited Sperone Westwater’s much-ballyhooed new edifice, a striking sliver of glass jutting heavenward on an otherwise dingy Bowery block yesterday morning.

Intoxicated by the pungent fresh paint aroma, we (the invited press pack) paced around the new gallery, hung with a stellar selection of architecture and Cubist inspired paintings by Argentine Guillermo Kuitca, dating from 2008 to 2010.

Sperone Westwater joins the LES migration with a transformative statement – an eight-story building by Foster and Partners. The gallery, established in 1975, leaves behind the Meatpacking outpost it occupied since 2002. (We blogged about the relocation saga here and here).

The new 20,000 square-foot venue features three floors of sky-lit public gallery space, two private gallery levels, a library, basement storage, and two floors of offices.

The marquee element is a so-called “moving room.” An elevator-like structure, the room travels (very slowly) between the second and third floor, providing extended exhibition space. Splashy red paint coats the outside of the moving gallery, visible from the Bowery. The floating facade animates the milled-glass and black metal exterior.

Architect Sir Norman Foster, bald and suited, attended yesterday’s launch. He said the moving room had seemed impossible at the outset, but it was ultimately the building’s star note.

Kuitca’s “Le Sacre, 1992,” lines the walls of the moving gallery. Fifty-four soiled child-sized mattresses are installed, padded cell-like, in the 12 by 20 foot room. The beds are covered with geographic maps with tufted buttons marking major cities.

Guillermo Kuitca’s eighth solo show with Sperone Westwater opens today and runs until November 6th.

Sperone gallery interior. Kuitca's 2009 "Untitled" hangs on wall. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Sperone director David Leiber with Guillermo Kuitca's 2010 "Lontano." © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Backside of Sperone gallery. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

View of Sperone's "moving room" installed with Kuitca's 1992 "Le Sacre." © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Detail Kuitca's "Le Sacre." © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Terrace on back of Sperone gallery installed wtih Richard Long's 1996 "Houston Circle." © Photo: Lindsay Pollock