Oliver Shultz

To be born under Saturn is to be marked by a touch of melancholy—to be the eccentric, the bohemian, the outsider—and in her serenely beautiful French Pavilion, the brilliant Yto Barrada has woven together the mythology of Saturn (or Cronus, the god of Time and Agriculture) with the political and material history of textile production in France. Just as Saturn devoured his children, Yto opened the skylights to allow the strong Venetian Sun to “devour” the raw wool that covers the Pavilion’s walls— a play on the classic technique of “Devoré”. The one undevoured child of Cronus was of course Zeus, who was hidden on Crete as a baby and nursed by the divine goat Amalthea. The goatskin geometric sculpture suspended from the Pavilion’s portico alludes to Amalthea’s maternal skin, while the strange, BDSM-like metal masks displayed on plinths inside are actually masks placed on baby goats to ween them from their mothers— when the kids go to feed, the mothers reject the babies. Throughout, raw and dyed wool proliferates. This is French wool, shorn and woven in France, where 90 percent of all the wool shorn from sheep is burned since it is cheaper to import it from China and elsewhere. Above, a tapestry depicting the punchcard music roll of La Marseillaise, which the Luddites chanted as they burned the first industrial textile looms. There is so much more to say about Yto’s pavilion, and the magisterial knot of conceptual and historical logic that underpins it. Brava @ytobarrada curator @myriambensalah and their terrific team. @pacegallery is proud to support #YtoBarrada #FrenchPavilion #LaBiennale #BiennaleArte26

Repulsion and fascination, threat and care, tenderness, delicacy, excitement, embarrassment—I couldn’t decide what exactly I felt about Florentina Holzinger’s Austrian Pavilion, but I knew it made me feel something— a lot of things at once— and I think that’s what art is supposed to do. Finding beauty amidst our abject present, what else is it all about? Bravi to @floholzinger and her fearless group of performers and collaborators. #LaBiennale #BiennaleArte2026 #FlorentinaHolzinger

The light, the mist, the transparencies and reflections of Venice—the lore of the city itself—are distilled in Nigel Cooke’s new body of paintings, now on view at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice. This ravishing show is the result of several months that Nigel spent as the first artist in residence at the Querini. Accompanied by a gorgeous essay by curator Evelyn Hankins @curatorialworks , the show condenses Nigel’s months of deep looking and thinking about Venice, its art and history and materiality, and especially the Querini and its collection— in particular the extraordinary Bellini that is the jewel of the museum. Thank you to Querini Director Cristiana Collu and the entire staff for hosting this amazing project, and to the indefatigable Pia Capelli @piacapelli for her virtuosic shepherding of the project. And to @giorgiapratini for all her work behind the scenes. Congratulations dear @nigelcookestudio on this triumph of an exhibition, on view now through November 2026! #NigelCooke #QueriniStampalia #BiennaleArte2026 @pacegallery

What a joy and honor to witness the great Mr. Lee Ufan crafting this extraordinary exhibition in Venice together with curator Jessica Morgan. The show is a masterpiece of introspection, tranquility, and stillness, an antidote to the bustle of this ancient city and the relentless churn of our modern lives. Tantissimi auguri to Mr Lee, @jooesra and his entire team, and to Jessica Morgan and the team from @diaartfoundation for organizing this official Collateral Event of @labiennale Arte 2026, and of course to @smac_venice and cofounders David Hrankovich and @davidazio for hosting this amazing, once in a lifetime show. @pacegallery is proud to have supported this project. #LeeUfan #JessicaMorgan #DiaArtFoundation #SmacVenice #BiennaleArte2026

I’ll always remember Mel Edwards swiveling around the gallery on an office chair at Pace in 2022, directing the installation of a new barbed wire work based on a drawing from the sixties. Curating “Epistrophy,” which reunited Mel with his compatriots, William T Williams and Sam Gilliam — the “three amigos” —, was automatically a dream come true. I couldn’t have imagined I’d get to experience so directly the generosity, the brilliance, the erudition, the ferocity of creative spirit that was Melvin. ~ What a kind and good and just soul. Melvin taught me so much. I was a nobody but he made me feel like he would’ve done anything for me, or tried. He seemed ageless, superhuman. He was just a wonderful man, beloved to his family, to artists, and to many others. I think he will be beloved to history as well. Rest in power Mr Edwards. Long live the great Mel Edwards. ~~ *NB: In the first image, to the left you will see, in plastic, the paint-splattered boot of Sam Gilliam. Sam mysteriously sent this boot, along with one of his drapes, to the gallery. The boot shadowed the exhibition, which Sam could not attend in person for health reasons. Theaster Gates later included Sam’s boot in his New Museum show. I consider this image a double portrait of Sam and Mel, where the boot stands in for Sam as a contact relic, a metonym, an artifact of the commitment to a rich, daily studio practice that defined both these iconic artists over 6 plus decades. Now they are together again.

Mid-day immersion in red in the conference room @pacegallery courtesy of @jamesturell

Unmaking as making. Nocturnal air thickly alive with buzzing insects. Vibratory energies fissuring the picture plane. Krumholzen dancing atop ridgelines of the mind. Here, some details and outtakes from the scintillating new works by @lauren_quin_ now on view @pacegallery Los Angeles. If painting is dead, Lauren’s necromancy is pure joy. Look out for the catalogue forthcoming with a beautiful prose-poem-essay by @arianareines - on view thru Mar 28, 2026.

David Lynch was a painter before he discovered film, and he remained a painter his entire life. He also made drawings, sculpture, and photography, all of which are on view in “David Lynch” an exhibition I am proud to have curated for @pacegallery in Berlin, in collaboration with the Estate of Lynch and my Pace colleagues Bill Griffin, Laura Attanasio, and Genevieve Day. ~ Over a year ago, Bill and I proposed this exhibition to David. I was meant to visit him almost exactly one year ago in LA to plan it together. Sadly, fate intervened and took him from us too soon. I am sad that he couldn’t be here to see this show, but in a way, he is here. He is so present in his work. His consciousness inhabits the gallery. The show is a summoning, but also my love letter to David, wherever he is. ~ The protean creativity of Lynch knew no bounds. His influence is so vast, its difficult to measure. His images have penetrated our collective dreams. How many artists have an adjective named after them? Everyone knows what “Lynchian” means…. And just as we live in a world that is ever more Kafkaesque, so too are we surrounded by art that is profoundly Lynchian. David invented his own personal American surrealism, one that was indigenous to his mind, and this exhibition attempts to excavate it and reconjure it through a constellation of all the mediums in which he worked. Painting, however, remained at the core of it all. David’s painting is, for me, the unconscious of the films. ~ “David Lynch” is on view at Pace Gallery Die Tankstelle in Berlin through March 30. Thank you to @laura.atta and the indefatigable @anna.thausing and to the terrific team of preparators who worked closely with me to make this installation. Thank you to Sabrina Sutherland, David’s right hand and head of the Estate, and to his sons Austin and Riley Lynch for attending the opening and supporting the show, and to all the diehard Lynch fans who braved the cold and waited in line on the icy Berlin streets for over an hour to get a glimpse of the powerful work David left behind for us, and to be in communion together with him and his spirit.

The breathtaking, monumental exhibition “Louise Nevelson: Mrs. N’s Palace” is now on view @centrepompidoumetz_ — brilliantly researched and curated by #AnneHorvath — this marks the first ever large-scale retrospective of Nevelson’s work in France. Hard to believe but true! This show is something to behold, a monument to a monumental artist. More than worth the quick 1.5 hr train ride from Paris! Congratulations to Anne, @chiaraparisi_paris and the stellar team at Pompidou Metz. Chapeau!

Thank you Aggie for embodying the highest expression of what it means to support art— by being a guardian angel and guiding light to artists, curators, museums, and the art field itself— always grasping tight to what you knew was just, offering a model for how to do it the best way. For Agnes Gund (1938-2025) let us sing praises.

Thought about this #AdrianGhenie painting today. ~ Adrian Ghenie, The Hotel Room, 2023, oil on canvas, 83x71 in.

Sometimes an exhibition you’ve been thinking about for a long time surprises and delights you more than you could have imagined. “Alicja Kwade & Agnes Martin” is more than a juxtaposition; the works interpenetrate and make me understand each artist in totally new ways. Congratulations to @alicjakwade - who not only brought brilliant new works into the world, but who touched the work of Martin, visually, conceptually, and physically, bridging time and space. What a privilege and a pleasure to be in dialogue with you and #ArneGlimcher as you put together this magnificent show. And thanks to everyone who came to our talk! “Space Between the Lines” is on view now at @pacegallery in Los Angeles through June 29.