It took 30 years, but Gagosian Galleryhas finally arrived in San Francisco. We got an exclusive peek inside prior to its May 18th opening.

San Francisco joins an elite group of international cities—London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Athens, Hong Kong, New York and Beverly Hills—in becoming the 16th outpost for the gallery founded over three decades ago by Larry Gagosian, the world's most powerful art dealer.

With the massive new SFMOMA reflected in its windows as you enter, the gallery (at 657 Howard Street) is likely to become ground central for the purchase of 6 to 8-figure art works in the Bay Area, just as art connoisseurs from around the world will be visiting the museum directly across the street.

"There's a lot of energy here, and I think the timing is absolutely right, with the reopening of the SFMOMA," says gallery director Anna Gavazzi Asseily, who was previously with Gagosian in London.

While they've had long-term relationships with collectors in the Bay Area, the San Francisco location will enable greater engagement with new collectors. "I think less and less do people have time to travel around," she says. If the buyer can't go to the art, bring the art to the buyer.

And such art! After stepping into the sunlit space designed by Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture, located at the ground floor of the Crown Point Press building, you immediately see pieces from some of the most intriguing artists of the past 70 years.

The first exhibit, "Plane.Site," curated by Sam Orlofsky, juxtaposes important three-dimensional pieces with the artists' drawings related to the work. You will see, for instance Pablo Picasso's bronze "Tete de femme," of 1951, next to his "Portrait de Sylvette," drawn with pencil on notebook paper, or Cy Twombly's never before seen "Untitled, Lexington" (2009) made of wood, cardboard, and plastic strings, shown with a composition on handmade paper.

They are planning to run four exhibits a year, as well as art talks and events to reach out to the wider arts community. Here's our exclusive glimpse at the first exhibit.