There are numerous factors that can affect a viewer’s experience when in an art gallery. Lighting, spacing, and the setup of the pieces of art all play a role in this. A sleek, typical white cube draws the audience to examine the artwork in a minimally invasive setting, whereas a gallery with colored walls, or windows, may alter this focused outlook. Teresa Burga and Ishiuchi Miyako present two contrasting galleries, not only in their different forms of art but in their different presentations of it. Miyako’s photographs and Burga’s sketches and sculptures are contrasted by their differing mediums as well as these outside factors. 

Teresa Burga’s gallery, presented at Alexander Gray Associates on 510 West 26 Street, contained artwork of different natures, but related in their outcome. This gallery was set up with sketches hung around the room, leaving the only two sculptures in the middle of the floor. At first glance the pieces may seem to have no relation, but when examined more closely, the sketches dictate what the other pieces were to become. Burga’s setup of the room affects the viewer’s experience with her work, as it grabs their attention, forcing them to reexamine the artwork once this connection is made, thus intriguing the viewer to discover more similarities in the other pieces. One of the pieces in the installation, “Serie Máquinas Inutiles” depicts a pen on paper sketch of the featured sculpture, “Serie Máquinas Inutiles, Lámpara”. The intended purpose of this being a series rather than a stand alone sketch, along with the setup of the room, begs the viewer to go between the artwork on the wall and the sculptures on the floor. This affects their experience as they are now drawing comparisons between the pieces and feel a connection within the confines of the room. Additionally, the room’s use of the “white cube” setup brings the focus to only the artwork and the connections within the artwork, giving no direct correlation from the art to the room but rather connecting the art to the other works of art.

Not all galleries utilize the “white cube” aesthetic that is described by O’Doherty. Ishiuchi Miyako’s gallery, presented at Fergus McCaffrey on 514 West 26th Street, uses both her artwork and the space in which it is presented to enhance the viewer’s experience. This gallery uses painted walls to connect with the photographs. The gallery first opens with a black wall that holds black and white photographs, such as “Yokosuka”, and then transitions to grey, pink, and blue walls, along with photographs that contain a relative color scheme. Miyako’s use of the gallery space affects the viewer’s experience as it gives them a sense of separation from the different related works, as the bodies of work have similarities to the ones they are grouped together with, but contrast more with the works of art on a different colored wall. The use of colored walls also allows the viewer to see the photograph past its original boundaries. The photograph is no longer constrained to its frame, but can now bleed into the outside world. “Yokosuska” in relation to the wall is examined differently than “Innocence #77” on its grey wall, as the aesthetics of the whole room shift to adapt to the altered theme and evoke different emotions out of the viewer. 

Burga and Miyako both present artwork that is in someway connected, yet they present their galleries in much different ways. Burga’s use of the classic white cube as compared to Miyako’s use of colored walls creates a different environment for the viewer, and therefore a different experience. Burga’s artwork in relation to its setting may urge the viewer to focus on the bare aspects of her sketches whereas Miyako’s artwork leads the viewer to see it in a different setting, connecting the emotions that are evoked from the photograph to the emotions that are related to those colors.