FIAC

Past
Oct 18 – Oct 24, 2021
Paris

Art Fair Details:

FIAC Paris
Grand Palais Ephémère
Oct 21 – 24, 2021

Online Preview:

Oct 18 – 24, 2021

Connect:

(opens in a new window) @pacegallery
(opens in a new window) @fiacparis

Pace is pleased to detail its presentation at the 2021 edition of the Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain (FIAC) in Paris. The gallery’s participation in FIAC and the recent opening of its new London space at 5 Hanover Square reflect its growing contemporary program and underscore its commitment to Europe.

Among the highlights in Pace’s FIAC presentation is a selection of works by Louise Nevelson, including two iconic monochromatic wood sculptures dating to 1976–78. Both of these large-scale works are painted black and feature multifarious wooden forms. As the artist once said, “You can’t just put pieces of wood together, they have to relate to each other like humans.”

The presentation will also feature two of the artist’s celebrated wall reliefs, which incorporate varied materials and reflect her restless experimentations in abstraction. Pace began representing Nevelson in 1963.

A sculpture from Jeff Koons’s famed Popeye series will also be on view in Pace’s booth. Titled Seal Walrus (Chairs) (2003–09), the work features lively renderings of pool toys amid a stack of 14 white chairs. The buoyant sculpture is part of Koons’s longstanding engagement with everyday objects, cartoons, and children’s toys, among other subjects. Koons joined Pace in spring 2021 and he is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.

Another major sculpture in the presentation is the duo Elmgreen & Dragset’s Dirty Socks (Stainless Steel) (2021), which is in dialogue with Peter Hujar’s 1976 photograph Christopher Street Pier #2 (Crossed Legs). Elmgreen & Dragset, who joined the gallery in 2020, will open their first major show with Pace on November 9 in New York.

In the way of digital works, Pace will present Michal Rovner’s new video Pastel (2021) at FIAC. The work features differently sized silhouettes moving in groups throughout an abstracted, anonymous landscape. The piece exemplifies the artist’s enduring investigations of histories of displacement and migration as well as her ability to imbue mysterious scenes with political poignancy.

Pace’s booth will also showcase Nathalie Du Pasquier’s painting Untitled (2021). Du Pasquier, who was a founding member of the Milan-based Memphis Group during the 1980s, creates still-life scenes based, in part, on careful arrangements of objects in her studio. This new painting, which features graphic lines and other forms in bold shades of red, pink, blue, and yellow, puts Du Pasquier’s imaginative sensibility as both an artist and designer on full view.

Pace’s booth will feature dynamic, geometrically minded abstractions by Brent Wadden, whose work Untitled (2020) blurs the boundaries between paintings and textiles; Yto Barrada, who used natural dyes to create her textile work Four Times Casablanca I (Centripetal) (2020); and the pioneering minimalist artist Robert Mangold. Mixed media works by Prabhavathi Meppayil and Antoni Tàpies also figure in the presentation.

Featured Highlights

Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons’s Popeye series, which the artist began in 2002, incorporates some of his recurrent signature motifs, including surreal juxtapositions of everyday objects, cartoon imagery, art historical references, and children’s toys. Having depicted inflatables in his work since the late 1970s, Koons demonstrates his continued interest in cast metal readymades in sculptures from this series. In Seal Walrus (Chairs) (2003–09), which is part of this famed body of work, two seemingly inflatable seal and walrus pool toys rest on top of each other while bisecting a stack of 14 white chairs. Both creatures are meticulously rendered from polychromed aluminum. At once hard and soft, familiar and uncanny, these objects defy reason and material convention. Here, Koons deftly adds a sense of postmodern nostalgia to mass-produced objects.

Antoni Tàpies

Drawings and collage-based works were essential to Antoni Tàpies’s practice, and he often utilized bodily imprints and outlines in pieces of this kind. These autobiographical, corporeal elements began to take form in 1953, and in the 1970s the artist started to incorporate more pronounced objects in his work, ranging from string to bits of fabric and socks. Tàpies believed that art belonged in the world, and his use of materials grounded his practice in the earth’s materiality. His incorporation of everyday materials into works of art reflects an alchemical process with precedents in medieval mysticism. 391 (2001) is emblematic of Tàpies’s mature work, which includes graffiti-like gestures and symbols that imbue his works with potent energy for viewers to draw on and explore. The cross—as seen on the left side of the canvas—is one of the most significant symbols in Tàpies’s work, where it appears as a plus-sign, an X, or something more evocative of a T. This rich and varied history of the cross was important for Tàpies, who once wrote, “In essence the cross is meant to be a veritable structure of the universe. In this sense, we must speak less of a symbol than of a description of a very widespread ‘human reality.’”

Robert Mangold

Robert Mangold rose to prominence in the 1960s as one of the most prominent voices shaping the discourse of painting. In his six-decade career, he has continually pushed the boundaries of painting through defying art historical conventions and expectations. 3 Squares Within a Double Square II (2017) is a singular example from the artist’s most recent painting scentering on the formal possibilities of the square and investigating the effects of implied positive and negative space. In 3 Squares Within a Double Square II, Mangold at once turns away from the neutral shades typical of his work of the 60s and builds upon his bolder hues of the early 80s by utilizing a sharp, gleaming yellow that captures light and intensifies the entrancing impact of the painting. Bearing an internal geometry, the monochromatic layer is broken up by two square cutouts framing a central square drawing. The off-kilter movement of the shifting canvas establishes multiple planar fields—from the emerging vibrant primary hue to cutout canvas to an outlined square anchoring the flatness of the composition. In 3 Squares Within a Double Square II, Mangold produces a sense of depth while maintaining an abstract and minimalist style, showcasing his deft handling of color, surface texture, and line, as well as his ability to craft visual illusions that challenge the viewer’s sense of perception.

Green Ellipse/Gray Frame by Robert Mangold — Robert Mangold, *Green Ellipse/Gray Frame*, 1989, acrylic and black pencil on canvas, 69 x 127" (175.3 x 322.6 cm)

Yto Barrada

Yto Barrada often explores social, political, and material histories in her multidisciplinary practice, which spans photography, film, installation, sculpture, and other mediums. The present work is part of the artist’s series of textiles dyed by her using natural pigments and engaged with Frank Stella’s 1964–65 Morocco paintings. Like the pieces in Stella’s series, which are named for different cities in Morocco and inspired by vibrant tile patterns in the country, Barrada’s geometrically minded compositions feature refined lines and angles. Barrada’s employment of natural dyes in these works is particularly resonant, given the history of textile production in Morocco. She also draws inspiration for her textiles from the Casablanca School (Mohamed Melehi, Farid Belkahia, and Mohamed Chebaa). In Four Times Casablanca I (Centripetal) (2020), Barrada has created a mesmerizing pattern from her careful arrangement of lines. The artist has said, “I’m interested in building on the history of a place, a moment, a movement.”

Untitled by Yto Barrada — Yto Barrada, *Untitled*, 2019, acrylic paint and wallpaper paste on paper, 11-3/4" × 17" (29.8 cm × 43.2 cm), paper 17-5/8" × 23-3/4" × 1-1/2" (44.8 cm × 60.3 cm × 3.8 cm), framed

Velvet collage #5 by Yto Barrada — Yto Barrada, *Velvet collage #5*, 2021, silk velvet dyes from plant extracts mounted on board, 29-7/8" × 37-7/8" × 1-7/8" (75.9 cm × 96.2 cm × 4.8 cm), framed

Elmgreen & Dragset

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have collaborated as the artistic duo Elmgreen & Dragset since 1995. The artists’ practice incorporates various modes of making—spanning sculpture, architecture, performance, and installation—as part of their explorations of the politics of art institutions and conventions of presentation and display. Their work radically re-contextualizes objects and alters traditional modes of representation. Often playful and subversive, their work pursues complex questions and themes relating to identity, sexuality, and mortality, as well as the dynamics of public spaces. Elmgreen & Dragset’s Dirty Socks (Stainless Steel) (2021) subverts traditional notions of objectification and desire. The sculpture is in dialogue with Peter Hujar’s black-and-white photograph Christopher Street Pier #2 (Crossed Legs) (1976). The position of the crossed legs of the sculpture is drawn directly from the subject of Hujar’s iconic work. As with Hujar’s powerful images of queer communities in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s, social issues and notions of identity play profound roles in Elmgreen & Dragset’s work.

Mary Corse

Louise Nevelson

Louise Nevelson, a leading sculptor of the 20th century, is widely recognized for her series of wood structures comprised of nested objects painted monochromatically in black, white, or gold. In particular, the color black held great significance for Nevelson, who described it as containing all colors: “It wasn’t a negation of color. It was an acceptance. Because black encompasses all colors ... There is no color that will give you the feeling of totality. Of peace. Of greatness. Of quietness. Of excitement. I have seen things that were transformed into black that took on just greatness ... Now if it does that for things I’ve handled, that means that the essence of it is just what you call—alchemy.”

Nevelson’s decision to work with wood liberated her from the medium of many of her contemporaries—welded metal—and her use of found materials allowed for spontaneity within her process. She was inspired by the immediacy of discarded wood. “You can’t just put pieces of wood together, they have to relate to each other like humans,” the artist once explained. She began painting these cumulative wood structures entirely with black paint in the early 1950s, erasing the original histories of each component and forging a striking new presence. Untitled (1976–78) typifies Nevelson’s assemblages from the 1970s, which were constructed of found objects that she transformed into singular and narrative portraits of urban life. These works serve as poignant and evocative reflections of the artist’s physical surroundings.

While Louise Nevelson is best known for her monochromatic, large-scale wooden sculptures, the artist is also celebrated for her multifarious wall relief assemblages. For the present four works, created in 1957, 1970, and 1980, Nevelson used a range of materials, including leather, cardboard, fabric, and wood, to forge dynamic abstractions. Spanning critical periods of Nevelson’s career, these works reflect the artist’s intense interest in unexpected combinations of materials and compartmentalized compositions. Whereas one of the works from 1957 features a constellation of small wooden elements, the 1970 relief includes a vibrant red segment amid its many layers. The 1980 collage depicts a lyrical arrangement of wood, glass, and paper. Like her iconic large-scale sculptures, the present wall reliefs engage with expressions of interiority, exteriority, containment, and overlap. These works evince Nevelson’s engagement with Cubism and Constructivism, as well as her position as a great innovator in abstraction.

Nathalie Du Pasquier

Nathalie Du Pasquier, a founding member of the Milan-based Memphis Group in the 1980s, is known also as a painter. In 1987, she shifted her focus away from design towards painting, concentrating on creating still-life scenes based on objects arranged in her studio. Exploring various modes of representation, Du Pasquier explains she is inspired by people, places, and things such as “Persian miniatures, Ingres, Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Indian temples, Sanchez, Sottsass, El Lissitzky, Morandi, Giorgio de Chirico and Savinio, French medieval miniatures, Le Corbusier, the shape of flowers, the colors of exotic fishes, the beauty of animal life, Japanese prints, and the albums of Tintin et Milou.”

Du Pasquier has experimented with both figurative compositions and pure abstraction, but in recent years she has embraced painting imagined objects and spaces over the physical world. Untitled (2021), a recent work by Du Pasquier, is a continuation of her explorations of form. Taking initial inspiration from quotidian objects, she renders a world of endless possibilities and connections. Incorporating vibrant shades of red, pink, blue, and yellow along with muted tones of grey, black, and brown, this work is framed on three sides by red and grey stripes of color and vibrates with dynamic graphic lines and forms.

Prabhavathi Meppayil

Indian Bangalore-based artist Prabhavathi Meppayil is known for integrating craft-based labor and process art, positioning her work in dialogue with a complex history of material production and Minimalism of the 1960s and 1970s. In her practice, Meppayil explores grids, monochromatic compositions, and serial repetition. With an emphasis on material, tools, and process, she engages with artists such as Agnes Martin, Robert Ryman, and Sol LeWitt. The descendant of a long line of goldsmiths, Meppayil often incorporates various metal wires and marks made with goldsmith tools in her work. Situated in one of the oldest commercial districts in Bangalore, Meppayil’s studio is in a building that also houses goldsmiths’ ateliers. Her minimalist paintings often employ gesso paint, gold, and copper, and she uses traditional Indian artisanal methods to either embed or affix copper or gold to the surfaces of her works. In dp/twenty/forty eight (2019), she builds out from the surface of the painting using 144 wooden cubes, each bearing a small square of copper placed on one side, casting shadows and refracting light around the painting. The dynamism created by this elegant and yet simple composition invites the viewer to move around the work.

Brent Wadden

Synthesizing traditions of painting, design, craft, and folk art, Brent Wadden’s work is the antithesis of mass-produced, machine-made textiles. At every stage of creation—from sourcing the yarn to stretching the finished material over raw canvas—Wadden is in control. Much like a painter experimenting with different formulas of paint, Wadden uses an array of yarn, including cotton, wool, acrylic, and handwoven fibers, to imbue his artworks with a sense of depth and tangibility. From afar, the present works might be mistaken for abstract paintings, but up-close they reveal a multitude of handwoven hues and textures. In this way, Wadden’s expert handling of material, composition, and color confounds our expectations of media, surface, and texture. Wadden’s work celebrates what might be considered mistakes or imperfections in another context, rejecting seamless joins and perfect alignments and revealing the labor-intensive processes behind the finished compositions that the artist has been honing for many years. Wadden has not only created a method that is distinctively his own, but he also collapses the hierarchies of disciplines, interrogating the boundaries that separate painting from textile, art from craft, and decorative from functional.

All Works

Lynda Benglis

Nigel Cooke

Keith Coventry

John Gerrard, Crystalline Work (Arctic), 2022, simulation, dimensions variable

John Gerrard

Glenn Kaino

Robert Longo

Kenneth Noland

Trevor Paglen

Michal Rovner

Michal Rovner’s multifarious practice, which is deeply engaged with histories of displacement and notions of identity, spans drawing, printmaking, sculpture, installation, and video. The artist is intensely interested in collectivity and universality as they relate to historical memory, and many of her works—including new videos Golden Field (2021) and Pastel (2021)—reflect investigations of this kind. The present works show groups of people moving across vast, anonymous landscapes. Differently sized silhouettes are situated across the screens in varying degrees of order and fragmentation. The abstracted terrains are rendered in warm yellow and deep purple, creating a mesmeric, otherworldly effect. These digital realms exemplify Rovner’s ability to omit details of time and place from her work while imbuing it with political and social tension. The artist has utilized images of unidentifiable, migrating figures in her practice since the late 1990s.

Kiki Smith

Song Dong

Song Dong examines quotidian and domestic subjects in his performances, media works, and installations. Following his graduation from college in Beijing in 1989, the same year of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the artist abandoned his painting practice to pursue media and performance art. Those mediums were growing in popularity during this time. His success with works of this kind in the mid- and late 1990s positioned him as a major figure in the burgeoning contemporary art scene in Beijing, which often serves as the setting for his reflections on the dynamism of life in China.

Song Dong’s recent work, Usefulness of Uselessness - Compressed Window No. 02 (2020–21), is a continuation of his Usefulness of Uselessness series, which investigates the cultural implications of found objects, urban life, and repetition. Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, this work explores notions of isolation, aesthetics, and the historical significance of windows as barriers between domestic and public spheres. Song Dong compresses the original proportions of the window frames, creating an image reminiscent of a crowded city skyline. Working with humble materials such as window frames, glass, and mirrors, he constructs installations using found objects. These collaged remnants of people’s homes carry with them a complex history of a city and the lives of its people. Looking closely at the work, viewers become accidental voyeurs, imagining distant homes, personal stories, and perhaps identifying shared experiences of the past.