ZURICH.- Galerie Gmurzynska kicked off Art Basel 2012 in Zurich last week with Saturday’s opening of the historic exhibition of works by David Smith, curated by his daughter Candida Smith. They continued their festivities with Art in the Park on Sunday, and on Monday night celebrated Zaha Hadid and her new book Zaha Hadid and Suprematism at Three Kings Hotel in Basel, presented by Krystyna Gmurzynska, Mathias Rastorfer and Isabelle Bscher.

David Smith: Points of Power opened on Saturday, June 9 at Galerie Gmurzynska's Zurich location on the famed Paradeplatz square and historically reconsiders the oeuvre of David Smith in a vibrant and necessary way. For the first time, a survey of the figurative impulse running throughout the work of David Smith, the most well-known American sculptor of the 20th century, will come together in an exhibition titled Points of Power. Featuring a rich context of Smith’s photographs, ceramics, sculptures and painting and hung in dialogue with one another curated by the artist’s daughter, Candida Smith.

The exhibition allows one to see the point of power in David Smith's work and how the human presence emanates even from his most abstract works. Smith refused to be hemmed in by the limitations of a single medium. Not only did he make drawings, photographs, ceramics, paintings and sculptures throughout his career, he often combined them in bold and innovative ways.

Zaha Hadid and Suprematism the new publication released by Galerie Gmurzynska presents the groundbreaking exhibition, designed and curated by Hadid at Zurich’s Galerie Gmurzynska in Summer 2010. Inspired by the design Zaha Hadid had executed for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s 1992 The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 show this exhibition compared works of the Russian avant-garde with those of Zaha Hadid Architects. Created specifically for the venue, the projection of a two-dimensional drawing onto a three dimensional space transformed the gallery into a spatial painting in which the threshold of the picture plane expanded and could be entered.

The book documents and explores these themes edited by Galerie Gmurzynska, featuring texts by Charlotte Douglas, Krystyna Gmurzynska, Alexander Lavrentiev, Melodie Leung, Andrei Nakov, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Mathias Rastorfer, Kenny Schachter, Patrik Schumacher, graphic design by Dan Miller.

Zurich’s ninth Art in the Park outdoor exhibition runs through August 6 in the private park of the city’s Baur au Lac Hotel. The show is curated in collaboration with Galerie Gmurzynska and Gigi Kracht, the wife of Andrea Kracht, the hotel’s sixth-generation owner. This year’s theme walks the fine line of figurative abstraction, as interpreted by some of the finest contemporary artist’s Fernando Botero, Alexander Calder, Robert Indiana, Robert Klippel, Jani Leinone, Joan Miro, Tom Otterness and features David Smith.