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 January 20 to March 6, 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 color, 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 colors. 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.
