Calder's Mobiles Hang at Eye Level on Hamilton Avenue Until January
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"The reason I let them hang it at this low height and right where your body is is because that's how Calder wants it to be. … In a museum you never get to do that."
Alexander S.C. Rower said that during a press preview on Oct. 2 at Hauser & Wirth's new Palo Alto gallery. He is president of the Calder Foundation and Alexander Calder's grandson. He also joked that a couple of the mobiles were "in jeopardy," because they hang in the middle of the room at close to eye level.
The gallery opened to the public yesterday, Saturday, Oct. 3, at 201 Hamilton Ave. Admission is free and you don't need to book. Downtown Palo Alto now has a room where museum-caliber work is shown closer than a museum would ever show it. Within a short drive, Stanford's museums and the Palo Alto Art Center are running fall shows that close on a staggered schedule. That makes this the fall to see all of them together, and the order you see them in matters.
The opening exhibition, "Calder | O'Keeffe," runs through Jan. 24, 2027. It brings together paintings, sculpture, jewelry and archival material to look at abstraction, movement and nature in the two artists' work, and at the friendship between them.
Hauser & Wirth Senior Curatorial Director Alexis Lowry explained during the preview why the pairing hadn't been done before:
"There are probably not two more well-known artists in the 20th century in the United States than Alexander Calder and Georgia O'Keeffe. I mean, it is as iconic a pairing as you could imagine, and yet there's never been a project that looks at the fact that they had a friendship or acquaintance over many decades."
She added that the show doesn't present the friendship as a primary relationship in either artist's life. It argues that their repeated meetings over the years invite a look at where their work crossed.
The checklist gives you specific works to look for. From Calder there are "Black Stabile," "Little Yellow Panel," "The Flower" and "Mauvais Herbes." From O'Keeffe there are "Black Spot. No. 2," "Jonquils No. 2," "Grey Lake George" and "Pelvis with the Moon – New Mexico." The O'Keeffe pelvis painting is on loan from the Norton Museum of Art. The gallery developed the project with the Calder Foundation, with research guidance from the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. At the preview, the painting hung near "Snag," a Calder bronze, so the two artists share one sightline.
What makes this different from a museum show is the scale. The gallery has 2,600 square feet of exhibition space, including a bookshop. In a room that size, a hanging mobile is something you walk around, not something you look up at from behind a rope. That is the experience Rower described.
Hauser & Wirth announced the Palo Alto location on July 15, 2026. ARTnews called it the gallery group's first permanent Silicon Valley gallery. Palo Alto joins a group of 18 locations across Europe, Asia and North America.
The gallery's official explanation points to Northern California's collectors and museums. Senior director Beatrice Shen told the San Mateo Daily Journal that artists had asked for years to show in the Bay Area. She cited Palo Alto's "unique intellectual ferment." At the preview, co-founder Iwan Wirth recalled painter George Condo saying he would be "so excited to show paintings in the place that is the birthplace of new technology." Wirth's conclusion: "So that's why we're here, because we go where the artist wants us to go."
The building has a long local history. Hauser & Wirth describes the site at 201–225 Hamilton as a century-old former post office, adapted for the gallery by architect Luis Laplace. Longtime residents may remember the corner for other reasons. A 2014 Palo Alto Online column reported that the Institute for the Future was moving into 201 Hamilton, taking over space once used by Diddam's Party and Toy Store and by Waterworks.
The bookshop is the part of the gallery most likely to bring people back between exhibitions. Shen told the Daily Journal it will host public talks, book launches, workshops and other programs. Copies of "Ursula," the magazine Hauser & Wirth publishes, were already on the shelves at the preview.
Hamilton Avenue gives you the close view. Stanford and the Palo Alto Art Center give you breadth, and this fall their schedules overlap with the Calder | O'Keeffe run almost week for week.
At the Cantor Arts Center, which calls itself "Open and free for everyone," the current shows include:
The date to mark at Cantor is Oct. 29. That's when "California Current: Art and Histories from the Bay Area" opens. It runs through Oct. 23, 2028.
At the Anderson Collection, "Patty Chang: surfacing" runs through Feb. 8, 2027. It brings together archaeological remains, fish specimens and archives to look at the Chinese fishing community on the Pacific coast. The Anderson's ongoing Spotlight installation pairs Susan Rothenberg's "Wishbone" with a portrait of the artist by Leo Holub.
At the Palo Alto Art Center, "Live the moment light" brings together Soleé Darrell, Terri Friedman, Corita Kent and Angelica Trimble-Yanu. Christine Koppes guest-curated the show, which runs through Dec. 13. The Art Center's Fall Family Day is Sunday, Oct. 18, from 2 to 4:30 p.m.
Calder | O'Keeffe lines up with these shows in a specific way. Rower and Lowry are making the case for seeing two famous artists up close and in conversation with each other. The Stanford shows lean toward history, archives and regional stories, and "California Current" is explicitly about the Bay Area. Seeing both in one season covers the distance from a single mobile turning a few feet away to a wide survey of where you live.
With these end dates, the schedule matters more than which venue you pick. Here is the fall, working back from today, Oct. 4:
The two Dec. 13 closings come first, and they land in the middle of the holiday season. Calder | O'Keeffe stays open longer than most of the fall shows. Seeing it last is a safe plan. Seeing it first and coming back is a better one. A second visit after the holidays lets you see how the mobiles behave in winter light, and it puts the show in a different context once "California Current" has opened up the road.
According to Artforum's Artguide, the gallery's regular hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. When we checked, Hauser & Wirth's own page listed only the opening-day hours, so call 650-674-4800 before a weekday trip.
Saturdays work especially well. The Downtown Palo Alto Farmers' Market runs year-round on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon, on Gilman Street between Forest and Hamilton. The gallery opens at 11 a.m., so the two overlap by an hour. You can finish at the market and walk down Hamilton to 201 before the noon crowd arrives.
A Sunday is better for the Stanford side of the season. Cantor and the Anderson are close to each other, and Fall Family Day on Oct. 18 gives Palo Alto Art Center visitors a reason to bring the whole family.
Calder | O'Keeffe is a reminder that how work is placed in a room changes how people see it. We think about the same thing every time we prepare a Peninsula home for market. If the gallery's lighting and sightlines have you looking at your own rooms differently, Caitlin Beanan can show you what that means for your home's value. Get your free home valuation.
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