A. In Episode 5, of Season 6, "The Angel of Death".
While examining the wings used in the bloody angel murder,
Dexter discovers that a small repair was made with a rare glue, and finds that
the backing of the wings was made from calfskin. Both items are
used in ancient manuscripts.
Next, Dexter learns from Debra that the angel victim worked at the Glass House Cafe, at the Miami Cultural Center. Dexter realizes that the Center is full of ancient artifacts needing repair.
So, he drops by the art museum at the Center, to ask about how to fix a
painting. But when he approaches a docent, instead of referring
him to someone who could answer his questions, she instead leads him to a
tiny theatre (filled with kids on a field trip) where they are showing a
film about ancient art restoration.
Fortunately for Dexter, Travis is in the film - shown doing a
repair. Dexter recognizes him (because he caught a glimpse of him
at the angel murder scene), and realizes that Travis works at the
center.
Later, Dexter looks up his record, and finds it clean. But he gets
Travis's address and breaks into his home, looking for evidence.
Q.
What is it actually in real life?
A. An art gallery.
Q.
Where can I find it in real life?
A. This scene was actually shot at the small Max Gatov Gallery.
That's located on the campus of California State University Long Beach (CSULB), located at 1250 Bellflower Blvd in Long Beach, CA.
Don't confuse this small, U-shaped gallery with the much larger University Art Museum.
This gallery is north of the Fine Arts 1 (FA1) building. The Fine Art buildings (and the Central Quad) are located at the far south end of the campus, just north of Seventh Street.
This is the same campus where they shot the University of Tallahassee scene,
(where Angel & Quinn talked to Professor Gellar's former assistant) -
for this same episode.
In fact, this art gallery is only about 50 yards to the north of the
spot where Gellar's assistant (Ms. Porter) was sitting on a bench, at the start of that
Tallahassee scene.
To show exactly where it is (and how close it is) in relation to that earlier scene, here's a video, courtesy of Jason Z (a CSULB student), showing the short walk from that "Tallahassee" location to the entrance of the Max Gatov Gallery:
On the show, they wanted the museum
to look like a place where ancient art was restored, so they filled it with
suits of armor and Renaissance art, which (as you can see below) isn't
typical of this gallery.
The small screening room, where Dexter watches the film, doesn't appear
to be
part of the gallery in real life. The producers could have created
that simple nook just about anywhere (including the studio).
Note: The exteriorof the art museum, seen later in Episode 8 ("Sin of Omission") was shot in an entirely different location.
Jason shot these photos of the gallery in November 2011.
(Yes, I think we can all agree that this is a very strange art exhibit...)
Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?
A. In previous seasons, I've
usually had to hunt down the locations after viewing the episodes,
using clues from the various scenes. By the 6th season, though,
I'd developed a small group of fans, spies & tipsters who kept an
eye out for Dexter filming in their neighborhoods, and would let me know
in advance when something was about to film there.
Between those reports, my own personal reconnaissance around town, and a
few new resources I discovered, by the time the first episode aired, I
already knew most (but not all) of the filming locations, and only
needed to watch the episodes and match up the scenes with the correct
locations.
This group of helpful fans includes Kerry, Rick, Ellen, Susan, Jason, Elaine, Joel, Julie, Geoff, Jeff, and others. My thanks to all of them.
Rick told me that they had filmed a museum scene at this gallery, at CSULB. But as
a UCLA alum, the only place I had been on the CSULB campus was their
Japanese Garden, so I didn't know where the gallery was. At first, I thought it was probably the main art gallery.
Fortunately, Jason Z
(a student at CSULB) tracked it down for me, and even sent me the
photos and the video you see above. (He also sent me photos for
that Tallahassee scene.) My thanks to both Jason and Rick.
