AHEAD OF DESIGN

Robert Wilson: A Boy From Texas installation view. Courtesy of Cristina Grajales Gallery. Cristina Grajales on the occasion of the gallery’s 25th anniversary. Courtesy of TDE TV.

Advocating postwar 20th-century design classics with designers of the day, Cristina Grajales exhibits Robert Wilson’s A Boy From Texas.

BY TERRI PROVENCAL

Mark Grattan, calfskin, reverse suede, and walnut stool, 2021, 24.75 in. h x 19 in. w x 17 in. dia. Courtesy of Cristina Grajales Gallery. Gloria Cortina chair, 2021, hand-carved black onyx, 27.5 h x 26 in. w x 13.75 d. Courtesy of Cristina Grajales Gallery.

Aconsummate source for 20th-century masterpieces and contemporary designers, Cristina Grajales Gallery is one of the most distinguished of its kind in the world. “We have the most beautiful corner in Tribeca,” says Grajales. The building, formerly a 1925 garage building with handlaid brickwork, is a block away from where Dia (Art Foundation) began, where Andy Warhol, Rob Wilson, and John Chamberlain once showed. “Having that history is so amazing,” Grajales says from the cobblestone streets of the neighborhood.

Grajales appeared at the Dallas Art Fair for the first time in April and plans to return, effusing that, “Everybody was so kind and lovely.” Through September 9, she’s showing A Boy From Texas, which, she says, “Is very special to me,” as an opportunity to reappraise the voice of the great Waco-born theater director Robert Wilson. Sparked by memories of his childhood in Texas and the early theater works and installations he developed in rural America, Wilson, working with the Corning Museum of Glass, created an installation in blown and cast glass reflecting nature, fragility, and rebirth. “When people see it, they burst into tears,” says Grajales. “Bob is telling a little bit of a biographical story of his life.”

In Wilson’s own words: As a boy, I never wanted the guns my father gave me, nor to go deer hunting with him. The only thing positive about the experience was that we would get up early in the morning and go out on our own to sit in a blind, waiting for a deer to appear. I always liked being alone, having this space, a place for my mind to have its own thoughts; perchance to dream. A boy from Texas.

“He wanted to be with his father,” Grajales avers. “And he’s telling a story through glass; there’s a sound component to it, and Bob composed these words and sounds.” In front of the installation, teenagers put their phones away, enthralled by the experience. Viewers find the work spellbinding, including a couple who came in with their four-year-old son: “He put his hands in his pockets and just sat in front of the platform. The installation is theater! It’s poetry right there in front of you It invites you to take a second to say, ‘Who am I?’” Grajales adds, “One of my dreams is to find a museum show for it in Texas.”

Colombian born, Grajales moved to the US in the late ’70s. Advocating authenticity, artisanship, and innovation, she opened her eponymous design advisory business in SoHo in 2001. She is known for not only her keen eye, but also lifelong relationships with artists and designers for whom she staged career-defining shows. After 15 years, she moved and expanded her gallery to a former printing building in Chelsea, where it remained from 2015-2021. Textiles and metalwork are among the particular passions that she champions.

Now in Tribeca (the move marked the gallery’s 20th anniversary), the gallery’s fall programming is rich, including Las Tres Pieles (The Three Skins), an exhibition Grajales will open on October 21 at the Museo de Arte de Pereira, Colombia. At the gallery, a show for Sang Hoon Kim and Mark Grattan will open September 20. Grattan will also take over Grajales’ booth at Design Miami. Next, work by Gloria Cortina, a highly regarded designer based in Mexico City, will run concurrently with Firooz Zahedi, November 3. And Grajales herself will receive the Museum of Art and Design 2022 Visionary Award on November 14 at the MAD Ball. P