The sparkling white walls of this minimalist space – on the ground floor of a grand house in the smart Recoleta district – are lined with striking monochrome prints of the city from a bygone age – street life from the 1950s onwards, capturing both the splendour and crudeness of the capital, be it portraits of the artistic elite (including conceptual artist Alberto Greco and architect Clorindo Testa) to the gruesome reality of an abattoir in the 1940s.
The inaugural exhibition is by the late Egyptian-born photographer Sameer Makarius, who arrived in Buenos Aires in 1953 and became one of the city’s most prolific photographers.
Makarius left behind a vast historical catalogue of more than 140,000 negatives and thousands of prints. His son, Karim Makarius, opened the gallery to display some of the work bequeathed to him by his father in 2009. Work by other Argentinian photographers and artists will also be shown. It’s a must for any art lover visiting the city.
