Visitors have been queuing around the block at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Riverton, where an exhibition of huge abstract paintings by Mira Calloway has become the most visited show in the museum’s history.
More than 40,000 people have seen “Weather Inside” in its first month, almost double the gallery’s previous record. The museum has extended its opening hours to 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays to cope with demand.
Paintings the size of a wall
The exhibition brings together 23 canvases, some more than six meters wide, painted by Calloway over the past decade in a former boat shed in Port Alden. The works are built up from layers of thinned paint, poured, brushed and scraped, in deep blues, rusty oranges and pale grays inspired by the sea and the coastal sky.
Standing in front of them, visitors often fall silent. Many sit for long stretches on the benches placed in the middle of each room.
These paintings do not ask you to understand them. They ask you to stay a while.
Johanna Reinholt, chief curator of the exhibition
An unlikely success
Calloway, 58, worked for years as a ferry ticket clerk and art teacher and had her first solo show only at 45. She rarely gives interviews, and the exhibition has no audio guide, only short notes by the artist on the walls.
I paint what the weather does to me. If someone feels something similar, that is enough.
Mira Calloway, artist
Critics have praised the show for its scale and ambition, though some argue that the hype has made the rooms too crowded to experience the works as intended. The gallery now recommends booking a time slot online and visiting early in the morning.
Young visitors
Museum staff say the exhibition has attracted an unusually young audience. Around a third of visitors are under 30, many of them first-time visitors drawn by photos shared online.
We are seeing students who have never been inside a museum before. If it takes a six-meter painting to get them here, we are happy.
Tobias Engström, director of the National Gallery of Modern Art
“Weather Inside” runs until the end of January. Tickets cost 14 euros, with free entry for under-18s and reduced prices for students and pensioners.
Comments 0