Hauser & Wirth’s Menorca Gallery Is a Feast for the Senses

Hauser & Wirth already had around a dozen exhibition spaces across the world, from London to Los Angeles, when, in 2021, it dropped anchor in a locale far removed from the expected art-market hubs: Isla del Rey, an island situated 15 minutes away from Mahón, the capital of UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Menorca. This “island within an island” was under British occupation on and off during the 18th century, and was returned to Spanish control after the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Now, it is home to an outpost of one of the world’s biggest galleries.

The 16,145-square-foot Spanish outpost is set in an 18th-century naval hospital; Argentinean architect Luis Laplace helped turn it into a gallery. Landscape designer Piet Oudolf oversaw the surrounding gardens, making sure to plant species adapted to the Mediterranean climate.

The island and its buildings are publicly owned but managed by Hauser & Wirth alongside the nonprofit Fundació Hospital de l’Illa del Rei, which has spent the past 18 years working on the restoration and preservation of the site with the help of devoted volunteers from all around the world.

Reaching the space requires a trek. Visitors must take a boat from the Mahón harbor, then, after a 15-minute ride, follow an ascending sculpture trail to get to the gallery. “I love spaces that imply a journey to get there,” said Christina Quarles, an artist currently showing her paintings at the space. “It slows down the process of looking. It gets you prepared.”

Even before seeing Quarles’s show, one is bound to encounter quite a few artworks outdoors. There’s Hans Josephsohn’s seemingly abstract brass figure to Stefan Brüggemann’s neon sculpture OK, boxed in by three stone walls. A twisty, curvy Eduardo Chillida sculpture can be taken as a sign to stop and take a turn. And finally, there is a Paul McCarthy work featuring reddish casts of Disney characters mounded together.

The McCarthy is situated outdoors in a patio that splits off into two indoor spaces. The first one features the latest seven artists to have taken part in Hauser & Wirth Menorca’s residency program. Curated by researcher Oriol Fontdevila, the show deals with the ecological challenges to be taken up in the Mediterranean.

Most the works on display in the exhibition, titled “After the Mediterranean,” have been produced in collaboration with locals. During her stay, Ghanaian artist Adjoa Armah has worked with geologist Lorena Rasero, archaeologist Irene Riudavets, and marine biologist Rita Pabst to develop (when) time turns, space turns, a clock made of 12 suspended, sand-filled transparent containers. The Huniti Goldox duo, featuring Areej Huniti and Eliza Goldox, worked with the printing studio Xalubinia and the salt mines by Sal de Menorca on Rising up from Halite, a semi-cylindrical installation covered with a blue, wavy sheet, on the inside of which a subtly changing water- and snow-filled landscape is projected.

“Salt can be seen as a matter of resistance that we use to propose a digital narrative in which the Mediterranean Sea has dried out—and we have been able to incorporate the material in the physical installation,” the duo said.

Next door to that show is “Come in From an Endless Place,” Quarles’s first-ever solo exhibition in Spain, featuring paintings on canvas and paper, as well as drawings, which the Los Angeles–based artist considers the starting point of her practice. Whereas most artists use drawings to plan what they will paint, Quarles relies on the medium in a more experimental way. “The gestural line is something I am very familiar with,” she said. “Materially, I am still exploring scale, texture, and color directly on the canvas. I don’t do sketches beforehand.”

Quarles’s paintings imagine entangled bodies merging, overlapping, and bumping into one another, Are the figures fighting or playing? The works are deliberately ambiguous in that regard. Quarles’s gender, sexual, and racial identity informs her approach to bodies. As a queer, cis-woman, fair-skinned though born to a Black father, her art defies labels, archetypes, and boxes. Her sketches have titles borrowed from overheard phrases, poetry, or pop songs, including Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Frank Ocean’s “Self Control.” For the artist, naming the works in this way creates a feeling of familiarity and intimacy

One new sketch, titled It’ll Be Good, shows a woman with her hands tied behind her back. She seems determined to move forward anyway. Is this Christina Quarles herself? Not at all, the artist said, adding that none of her works should be perceived as self-portraits. If they can be viewed that way, it’s because the gestures that led to them are a reflection of her creative process.

As with its Somerset and Los Angeles galleries, Hauser & Wirth’s Menorca space operates Education Lab meant to create a dialogue between artists and a wide range of individuals. In Isla del Rey, the center has already partnered with the Institut Menorquí d’Estudis, Pedra Viva, Es Claustre, and the Fundació Menorquina de l’Òpera. Its program includes workshops, talks and visits, as well as activities for primary and secondary schools. Over 7,500 learners have already engaged with it.

In response to Quarles’s works, students from CREAE Espacio Creativo, an arts school in Mahón, have created an installation with large canvases portraying body parts. “I value educational components, because I have benefited from them so much in my life, just by accessing arts education,” Quarles said. “I think it’s great that the show is open for such a long duration [until October 29], through the school year, which means a diverse audience will get to see it.”

Also like Hauser & Wirth’s Somerset or Los Angeles galleries, its Menorca space has an on-site restaurant, Cantina. It is run by Luis Anglés, owner of la bodega and the vineyard Binifadet, as well as the founder of the Menorca Bonita Project, a company that manages several iconic eateries in Menorca.

“The best courses are made with one ingredient only, but you have got to choose wisely,” said Anglés, before breaking the news that mayonnaise, long thought to have been created by the French, is actually a rip-off of “mahónaise” from Mahón. It was invented by Duke de Richelieu’s chef, who had spent time in the Balearic Islands.

Filled with art, good food and history, Hauser & Wirth Menorca is a feast for the eyes, the palate, and the mind. “Because they understood that gastronomy,” Anglés said, referring to Hauser & Wirth’s founders, “travel and the art combine to perfection. Hauser & Wirth created a place that has a soul and character.”