Highest contemporary art gallery

The highest contemporary art gallery is The Nautilus, situated at 4,300 metres above sea level in the base camp of Plaza de Mulas, on the west face of Mount Aconcagua, Argentina. The gallery is privately owned and run by Miguel Doura, a painter who studied Fine Arts at the Escuela Prilidiano Pueyrredón (currently Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte) and has a lifelong passion for mountaineering.

The art gallery, founded in 2003, is housed in a tent and exhibits about 40 of Doura’s paintings, which may also be viewed on webcam at http://www.aconcaguanow.com/draw.php . It is open seasonally during the climbing season (early December to early March) and dismantled during the winter months, when the extreme weather conditions make it impossible to keep it open. Doura’s choice of medium is oil pastels, as these can better stand the extreme winds and temperatures.