Phillips Auction House is currently hosting The Sky in a Room, a private selling exhibition curated by the celebrated Francesco Bonami. The exhibition, which will run through 11 August at 450 Park Avenue and  feature works by Alighiero Boetti, Francis Alÿs, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Cindy Sherman, and Rudolf Stingel, among others.

 According to Francesco Bonami, Phillips’ Senior Consultant and Advisor to the CEO & Chairman, “Each work in the exhibition comes from a single owner collection and is presented, not as a singular work of art, but as part of a group. These groupings create autonomous constellations within a very specific universe: the mind of a collector. Cruising in and out of different spaces, always searching, discovering and uncovering art, creating with it a new and imaginary and personal planet. The goal of any collection should never be the simple accumulation of artifacts but it should strive to build an utterly unique narrative, where the collectors' obsession, passion and mission is weaved together with those of the artists.”

The Sky in a Room takes its name from an Italian song written in 1960 by Gino Paoli, and made famous by singer Mina.  The exhibition is inspired by the idea that art has the unique power to transform mental and physical space. As the title of the show suggests, art through collecting can bring the sky inside a space, transforming a room into a borderless universe and offering the viewer an unexpected broader creative panorama.

Private sales have become increasingly important to Phillips, with private treaty totals in 2016 up 19% on 2015, and The Sky in a Room is just one of several private selling exhibitions that Philips has hosted within the past year. The exhibition in New York runs alongside a private selling exhibition in London, entitled Words are Deeds, also curated by Francesco Bonami.