BOB KISS/PACE GALLERY
Pace Gallery has begun what it describes as a partnership with the artist Christo, and will present a series of five works on paper by the artist at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, with a solo show to come in 2020.
The five new pieces all relate to Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, a project that Christo and his late collaborator Jeanne-Claude realized in the early 1980s. That piece is also currently the subject of an exhibition at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Reached by ARTnews, a spokesperson for Pace explained that Christo will not officially be added to the gallery’s roster, since he and Jeanne-Claude typically have not pursued gallery representation. Instead, the gallery will continue to work with him on various projects and exhibitions.
Marc Glimcher, Pace’s president and CEO, said in a statement, “Christo is a dreamer and an artist of mythic energy who has redefined the way we interact with the world around us.”
In 2020, at its forthcoming headquarter on West 25th Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, the gallery will host an exhibition focusing on work by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Glimcher added, “He and Jeanne-Claude’s vision and work live at the boundaries of things—the edges and intersections of places, ideas, and materials—and their practice embodies a boundless ambition for art to challenge nature, to somehow exist beyond the scale of nature. The attempt alone is inspiring, and I see as much genius and innovation in the unrealized projects as in the realized.”