PARK Magazine

ARTS
Marcelo
Zimmler
Gallerist, Upsilon Gallery
BY BENNETT MARCUS
Upsilon Gallery is
expanding in Manhattan,
with a new 2,000squarefoot
space at 23 East 67 th
Street that opened in
February. Specializing in
international postwar and
contemporary art with a focus on rediscovering
overlooked artists within a historical scope,
Upsilon Gallery also has a gallery at 146 West
57 th Street, which will remain open.
Osvaldo Mariscotti exhibition
The new UES space. launched with a solo
exhibition of Osvaldo Mariscotti’s paintings,
sculptures and mixed media works.. The show
focuses on the artist’s study of symbols and the
development of language.
“Osvaldo is a proper artist’s artist,” Marcelo
Zimmler says. “He likes to lock himself up in
the studio and paint all day.”
Mariscotti’s prolific career as a printmaker,
painter and sculptor has spanned over four
decades.. In 2015 the artist first participated in
the 56th Venice Biennale with his now-iconic
Book of Color I. His artwork has been exhibited
around the world in prestigious venues
including the MIIT Museum in Turin, the
Malzfabrik in Berlin, the Officina delle Zattere
in Venice, and the European Museum of
Modern Art (MEAM) in Barcelona.
Circuitous Route to the Art World
Upsilon Gallery, which launched in 2014,
also has representatives in Miami and London.
Its founder, Marcelo Zimmler, had a somewhat
unusual path to discovering his passion for art
and becoming a gallerist.
While studying computer science at Pace
University in New York, Zimmler’s plan was a
graduate program in applied math followed by
a career in academia. A study-abroad program
in London, where he met a lot of
entrepreneurial characters and participated in
competitions for business plans, upended
those plans.
“Coming into London, I thought I knew
exactly what I wanted to do, I was already
preparing for the GREs,” Zimmler says. “Then it
all flipped upside down. I didn’t like it anymore.
I knew it wasn’t my passion.”
A museum buff, he’d always been interested
in the arts, and once back in New York, he
immersed himself in the world of fine arts, and
found he loved it.
More kismet followed once he’d graduated:
he met the artist Osvaldo Mariscotti, who he
now represents, and whose show opened the
gallery’s new space. “I offered to help him ” says
Zimmler, “ Because he needed exposure.”
Zimmler designed a website, which received a
good response, and built the business out from
there, reaching out to art publications and
initiating collaborations with several art groups
within the US and Europe. “Eventually I put
together an e-commerce site and a number of
applications that combined Mariscotti’s
aesthetics with things like sound synthesis and