Following the success of American artist Louise Bourgeois's exhibition at St. Petersburg's famed State Hermitage Museum in Russia, a small aspect of the nonagenarian's work opens at the ACE Gallery in the ACE Global Headquarters building on Friday.

Included in the local exhibition will be a large-scale photograph of 'Maman', a ten-metre high cast bronze sculpture which remains in the courtyard of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, plus three sculptures and a group of drawings extracted from 'Louise Bourgeois at the Hermitage'.

The original exhibition, which lasted from October 2001 to January 2002 and was the first by a living American at the famed museum, was warmly welcomed by Russian viewers who had not experienced such a dynamic, cultural exchange for many decades.

Mrs. Julie Sylvester Cabot, the ACE Gallery's director of exhibitions, and associate curator of contemporary art at the Hermitage, was instrumental in bringing the Bourgeois exhibition to Bermuda.

"The mission of the Hermitage exhibition was to provide visitors with an intimate encounter with the work of Louise Bourgeois, and to experience her strong emotions through the gentle power of her sculpture," she said. "I am honoured and delighted to be able to bring a small part of that vibrant exhibition to Bermuda for the enjoyment of locals and visitors, and I am grateful to ACE Limited for their sponsorship of the project."

ACE was one of the first sponsors of 'Louise Bourgeois at the Hermitage' and has generously provided the insurance for the works of art.

Louis Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 and studied art at various schools there, including the Ecole du Louvre, Acadmie des Beaux-Arts, Acadmie Julian, and Atelier Fernand Lger. She emigrated to the US in 1938 and continued her studies at the Art Students League in New York.

Although she began her career as a painter and engraver, by the late 1940s Bourgeois had turned her attention to sculptural work, for which she is now recognised as a twentieth century leader. She was greatly influenced by the influx of European Surrealist artists who immigrated to New York during the Second World War. This artist's highly idiosyncratic style relies on an intensely personal vocabulary of anthropomorphic forms.

The Bourgeois exhibition will run until October 31. ACE Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, and the entrance is on Woodbourne Avnue. Admission is free. Groups are welcome but should 295-2000e for an appointment.