Sacred Spaces: Inside Quint Gallery Owner Mark Quint’s Unique Collection

Some of the curiosities to be found inside The Museum Of__, a small space within La Jolla’s Quint Gallery

Nick Nacca

Printed IssueSubscribe and get 1 year for $18

The man, the myth…the zombie dust collection. Quint is a name synonymous with art-world heavyweights and The Next Big Thing.

When founder Mark Quint isn’t uncovering new darlings, he’s scouting local flea markets for his oddities collection. We’re talking artificial sushi, religious sculpture, tourist tchotchkes, Edwardian taxidermy, matchbox cars, marbles, and, yes, dust. The high-low mash-up serves as a lifelong obsession and inspiration for The Museum Of__, a 140-sq-ft space inside his eponymous Girard Avenue gallery. Since he first opened in 1981, the La Jolla native has organized 250+ exhibitions of local, national, and international artists. Here in this plywood box, he curates his own collection and the kitsch of others. It’s both a wink and a prompt, asking viewers to question how we define the exotic and the ordinary.

Quint Gallery

7655 Girard Avenue, La Jolla.