Energetic art dealer Akim Monet opened his new gallery space this fall in Dallas’ Design District. The ambitious inaugural group show, titled “Objects of Desire,” gives viewers an intimate look at what Monet has in store for subsequent exhibitions.

The beauty of the show is the conversation between sculptures by the “father of modern sculpture” Auguste Rodin and a collection of contemporary artists. For several of the artists, this will mark the first time being exhibited in a gallery show in Dallas.

Including Rodin, the exhibition features work by the modern masters Joseph Beuys, George Grosz, and Man Ray juxtaposed with works by Dallas-based Mélanie Clemmons, Lita Albuquerque, and Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot fame. Other contemporary artists in the show include Francis Apesteguy, Majida Khattari, and Tahmineh Monzavi.

“Objects of Desire” is certainly a feast for the eyes. With the addition of two antiquities — a Hellenistic Pergamene marble torso (second half of the first century BC) and a group of Mesoamerican Chupícuaro female figures (ca. 500 BC to 300 CE) — the exhibition makes one ponder if they have stumbled into a secret storage room of the Met, or an eccentric collector’s lair.

Tracing back Monet’s career, one can see a clear path to his current curatorial style. As he remembers it, his “earliest childhood visual memory is a vast expanse of blue offered by an important Yves Klein painting titled California, against which inhabited a collection of Egyptian and Greek antiquities, all contained within the shrine of the Swiss mountains surrounding Gstaad.”

Monet’s professional career began in New York, dealing art to private clients, followed by working with Picasso dealer Jan Krugier and the Estate of Auguste Rodin. He then opened his own Berlin-based exhibition space in 2011, Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet. The space shuttered after seven years, and Monet made his way back to the states and ultimately to Dallas. He continues to have close ties with the Estate of Auguste Rodin, along with an encyclopedic knowledge of the catalog.

According to Monet, opening a new physical location allows him to continue his “curatorial mission of presenting transversal relationships between Modern and Contemporary Art.” “Objects of Desire” certainly does just that.

“Objects of Desire” is currently on view at Akim Monet Fine Arts, 2268 Monitor St., through November 30. More information can be found here.