ART BASEL PARIS 2026

The presentation will include the artist’s largest stretchedpainting to date, Stay Up Late to See the Light/ Stain’ UpLate to See Tha Light/ Staid Up Late to See Tha Light, 2026:a monumental triptych with panels that will alternate dailythroughout the fair, revealing different orientations of thework. This evolving installation invites viewers to encounterthe painting anew with each configuration, graduallyunlocking its multiple compositions. The presentation willalso include additional large-scale paintings alongside aseries of smaller charcoal works on paper.

The booth, designed by the artist, uses a matte black shadowto dramatically divide the space, playing with contrastand the natural light that enters through the Grand Palaisskylights throughout the day. Unlike in previous paintingswhere large areas of raw canvas were used as a light source,here Quarles relies on bright, saturated colour to illuminatesections of dense black and dark plains.

These new works mark a significant development in Quarles’practice, whilst continuing her exploration of bodies markedby a complex experience of identity. These paintings andcharcoal drawings on paper reveal an evolving intricacy inQuarles’ practice, and an expansion of the artist’s patterningtechnique and palette. Richly layered backgrounds andfragmented, interwoven bodies create a sense of dynamismand constant movement across these new paintings. Withthis body of work, Quarles constructs a world where fragilityand resilience sit alongside one another, striking a delicate, sometimes tense balance.

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Christina Quarles (b. 1985 Chicago, USA) currently lives and worksin Los Angeles, CA. The booth follows two significant museumexhibitions in 2025 at Kistefos Museum, Norway, and SCAD Museumof Art, Savannah. Christina’s large-scale installation, Now We’re There(And We’ Only Just Begun) (2023), is currently on display at LACMA’sW.M. Keck Foundation Gallery as the inaugural project installed in themuseum’s new education gallery.