Caracas Gallery
History
Ascaso Art Gallery is acknowledged by its demanding selection of works, the high standards of its exhibitions and the quality of its services to the public. It has been active for 27 years, starting at its headquarters in Valencia in 1989, and continuing since October 2002 in its facilities in Caracas, a pioneering edifice in Venezuela, designed with the most advanced criteria of museology applied to a private gallery.
Displaying the features of a small, four-story high museum, Ascaso Art Gallery in Caracas is endowed with perfectly illuminated spaces providing the ideal setting for the exhibition of artworks. It consists of three specially conditioned salons and a fourth lounge for sculptures and multiple uses. Its distribution is dynamic, adaptable to different types of exhibitions. Each year, these spaces house individual, collective, anthological, generic and retrospective shows and other proposals, endorsed by first-rate curatorial work and complemented with catalogs and other publications.
The first building designed in Venezuela for these purposes is a product of contemporary international architecture, modern in its style but with a classic, versatile language. The construction area covers about 21,500 square feet. The spaces specifically designed to shelter artworks are risen over the neighboring street by means of a podium or foundation enclosing different services and parking areas. Through a pair of staircases, visitors gain access to a balcony leading to the vast main façade whose crystals reflect shades of gold, silver and gray, a transparent composition which takes advantage of natural light to cast shadows toward a large, 33-feet-high atrium on the lobby, toward which the balconies of the halls lean out. It can be toured vertically, through cantilevered staircases and/or a panoramic elevator. There are services, bathrooms and deposits on each floor, everything carefully finished in cream-color marble, brown granite, wood and steel.
Its enclosed salons, 522 feet long with a total surface of 4,945 square feet, with heights ranging from 7.5 to 11 feet within the perimeter, suffice to accommodate either large-format works or pieces designed for a closer, more intimate inspection, like in a specialized cabinet. The terrace is absolutely free on the northern, western and eastern sides, with an area of 2,225 square feet and a maximum height of 23 feet, roofed with a slight domed cover in white canvas with an oval base. It offers a 360º view over a fine portion of the city with the imposing Avila Mountain in the background.
