Geneva was the one Gagosian without security staff… Had there been one, it would have probably been a black person, with white people working ‘behind the counter’, which was the case at the Gagosians in London (x2), New York (x3), LA and Paris. Athens had a white security guard, and Hong Kong a chinese one… with a caucasian behind the counter. (Ok, fine, in LA there was ONE guard that was white, and on 24th Street there was one Asian… the rest were black).
We only saw black people behind the counter in two occasions: at the New York Gagosians at 21st and 24th Streets… and they were probably interns. There might be more, working in the offices, but the vast majority of front-of-house staff we met were white. An interesting dichotomy that we don’t know whether it is accidental or just a mere representative of the racist power structures that still exist in our society. We’ve been discussing a lot about this issue, and, to be honest, it has been the one aspect that has shocked us the most about the Gagosian World: if there was something similar in all the McDonaldized franchises of the galleries, it was this racial divide (as well as the spot paintings hanging on the wall). The levels of friendliness also varied greatly: from the über-friendly ‘behind the counter’ staff at Davies Street, Paris or Geneva; to the incredibly arrogant staff at the Madison Avenue gallery… which was inversely proportional to the incredible friendliness of the security guards, most of whom where chatty, helpful and extremely polite and welcoming.
Anyways, in Geneva at the time we went, there were only two guys working (yes, men! also a rare-sight for behind the counter staff) and were both really friendly. One of them stamped Helena’s card twice by mistake, so it looked as though she had finished the challenge a stop away from the victory line.
lookseespots 
I am a person of color and I was at the front desk at Gagosian Madison Ave for 4 years. I’m still working at the gallery, now in L.A. To be honest, not that many ppl of color apply to work here. There is an interesting study here, but it’s not about the gallery system being racist – it’s about the idea of ppl of color not knowing about the art world, or even more – a study about economics and how most ppl of color are not in the “right” economic echelon to know about art, art jobs etc.
When we hire security guards for the exhibitions, we do not request any type of person – why don’t you look into why security companies hire more ppl of color? That might be a study in class-based societies as well.
Hello Hanako!
Thank you very much for your comment. It is indeed a much larger issue, of which the Gagosian Galleries are just a microcosms. I agree with the points you raised, and whereas there might not be many ethnic-minority applicants for positions at Gagosian, one is left to wonder about the surprising dichotomy that we noticed when we visited many of the Gagosian Galleries; a polarity that for example did not apply to other galleries we went to in the different cities. This is an aspect that was also noticed by some of the people we met on our journey.
Of course we cannot imagine the Gagosian Galleries requesting specific profiles of security guards or front of house staff based on their ethnicity, but the ‘segregation’ that occurs (reflecting larger schemes of white hegemonic power) is well worth a study, as you point out.
Thanks again for your comment!
Eduardo
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