Sperone Westwater

We love the hush to this place, the kind that makes you lower your voice without realizing it. It's tall, slender Sir Norman Foster–designed building is cathedral-like. The freight elevator that looms above your head when you walk in is a beautiful reminder that even art has to move.

Since the 1970s, Sperone Westwater has been showing artists who defined the European and American avant-garde. Many trace their roots to Arte Povera, Minimalism, and Conceptualism, movements that turned ideas and materials into something sacred.

It may not be immediately apparent what the art here is all about: it’s deep, it’s philosophical, and it's rooted in art history. All that can take a little time to sink in.

Whether drawn, molded, poured, performed, or filmed, the art spills from artists who view art-making as a kind of holy meditation, a way to tune in to the fragile, ephemeral magic of paying attention to being alive.

Founded in 1975 by Konrad Fischer, Gian Enzo Sperone, and Angela Westwater, the gallery built its reputation by showcasing the best of the Italian and American avant-garde. After early years in Soho and Chelsea, it moved to the Bowery in 2011, into a slender, light-filled building designed by Sir Norman Foster that is just a block away from the New Museum.