Geneva-Pace Gallery is thrilled to present its third exhibition of works by Nathalie Du Pasquier at 15-17 Quai des Bergues in Geneva. On view from 20 January to 18 March 2020, the exhibition will feature over thirty recent works. Following its debut at Pace Gallery in Seoul in 2019, the strange order of things 2 will continue the artist's exploration of themes of colour, shape, and space.
Du Pasquier's oeuvre has blurred the boundaries between fine art and design. Her design work gained prominence while a member of the Italian design collective Memphis. In 1987, she began focusing primarily on painting, repurposing mundane objects as models to engage her interest in perception. Over her career, the wooden abstract objects she had made gradually appeared in her paintings. In recent years, Du Pasquier's work has merged into purely abstract forms. As with her early architecture and design work, the new paintings and drawings continue to reflect her interest in the spatial relationships between objects.
'Like the strange order of things, presented in Seoul, this exhibition is conceived as a large installation,' explains the artist. 'The gallery walls 'participate' in the exhibition and are painted to frame and connect the canvases, giving rhythm to the space. The strange order of things 2 represents what I have been painting and thinking in the last two years. There is only one painting titled travail volontaire that dates from 2014. It is a figurative still life representing a wooden construction, a simple ceramic vase and a plastic fist belonging to a robot. All the other works are 'non voluntary' in the sense that they are abstract, following the almost automatic instinct I feel for constructing.'
In the strange order of things 2, Du Pasquier will transform the gallery into an abstract and immersive space, painting the walls in bright colours. She will carefully arrange paintings alongside works on paper producing stimulating dialogues between various media and within the space. As a continuation of Futur, ancien, fugitif: une scène française, Du Pasquier's recent exhibition at Palais de Tokyo, the presentation at Pace will also highlight one of the artist's vibrant cabin environments. Titled INSIDE (2019), the piece features a rectangular shape and showcases vibrant elements of Du Pasquier's complex arrangements, both on its inside and outside.
The exhibition will also feature five new precious boxes designed by Du Pasquier. They include the artist's most recent book, the strange order of things, published by Pace and Humboldt Books, as well as two silk screen prints, three additional booklets and an original work on paper. The remarkable book features a contribution by Kunsthalle Wien curator Luca Lo Pinto. 'Nathalie's work allows you to travel far without moving a muscle. Every painting she leaves behind provides a pathway leading into the realm of imagination,' explains Lo Pinto. '[Her] imagination is constantly enriched by new objects and signs. A work that sets its own limits in each instant, yet which at the same time is always ready to escape the framework of any rules, venturing into unknown territory.' Interspersed with unique drawings as well as quotes by artistic and philosophical inspirations, the boxes function as an independent artwork that further contemplates the strange order of things.
Nathalie Du Pasquier (b. 1957, Bordeaux, France) is recognised for her painting practice and her design work, which she developed as a member of Memphis, the Milan-based group founded in 1981 by Ettore Sottsass. Before moving to Milan in 1979, Du Pasquier spent a year in Africa, living and traveling in Gabon, Mali, and Niger, where she was exposed to textiles and graphics. Self-taught, she used drawing as a starting point for her own designs, which were applied to textiles and used as the surface patterns for furniture. In 1987, Du Pasquier shifted away from the design of graphic elements and dedicated herself principally to painting. Through her work, she explores various modes of representation, driven by her observation of the world and her interest in perception. She often works from models, painting still lifes that are not depictions of reality but increasingly abstract transformations of shapes and the relationships between various elements. Her models are constructions that she builds with painted geometric forms; since 2001, these have come to constitute a three-dimensional element of her practice that exist as autonomous artworks.
Press release courtesy Pace Gallery.
Quai des Bergues 15-17, 1201
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Switzerland
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