Art collector and auto dealer Ken Schwartz opened his new Detour Gallery in an 8,000-square-foot former warehouse on Clay Street in Red Bank Thursday night.

The opening exhibit, titled ‘Culturedrone,’ features dozens of contemporary paintings displayed over the gallery’s two floors. The space, featuring the original 50-foot-wide exposed roof trusses, was designed by borough-based architect Stephen Raciti.

Click ‘read more’ for additional photos from the opening. 

Ken Schwartz with a guest at the opening reception.

‘The Tiny Green Wings Of Desire Slowly Etch Away Your Ability To Soar,’ by T8. Viewings are by appointment only, though the gallery expects to set regular walk-in hours, a gallery spokeswoman said.

 “I feel like I’m in Chelsea, really,” Antoinette Boulangerie owner Ayca User said of the gallery space. “I hope Red Bank takes advantage of this.”

The building features murals on three exterior walls. One, completed earlier this month at the rear of the gallery by artist Beau Bradbury has been already been replaced by a newer one, above, by Patrick Kane Mcgregor. 

As previously reported by redbankgreen, the Detour building is topped by Sergio Furnari’s “Lunchtime on a Skyscraper,” a sculpture that recreates a famous 1932 photograph of steelworkers taking a lunch break on a steel beam 850 feet above the ground at Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center. You can read more about that piece here. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)