Robilant+Voena to present an exhibition of paintings by Monegasque artist Philippe Pastor, including new works and examples from earlier series, opening 21st September 2024 in New York.
The exhibition inaugurates R+V’s new gallery space on 66th Street, just moments from Central Park, and is Pastor’s first solo exhibition of paintings in the United States. The New York gallery will be under the management of a new Director, Fred Bancroft, who joins R+V from Coleman Bancroft, an art dealing and consulting firm that he founded in 2006.
The exhibition will coincide with Climate Week NYC (22nd – 29th September), an initiative that aligns with Pastor’s mission to urge action through his art, drawing attention to our individual and collective responsibilities to preserve the environment for future generations. Showing across four rooms in R+V’s new gallery space, the journey through the exhibition will allow visitors to meditate upon the spectacular natural beauty of the world, while also considering the peril which the delicate balance of our planet now faces. The exhibition emphasises how Pastor’s artistic practice complements his work as an activist; he consistently uses his art as a platform to shine a light on pressing climate issues, including collaborating with the United Nations as part of the United Nations Environment Programme, and through his foundation of Art & Environnement Association in 2007, which organises exhibitions and events to promote broad public awareness on climate change and the threats to our planet.
Featuring pieces from several of the artist’s most significant series, including a room dedicated to his signature Bleu Monochrome body of work, the exhibition will introduce American audiences to the ambitious breadth and variety of Pastor’s oeuvre. Alongside the serenity of the blue abstract works, the exhibition will include dynamic examples from the series Les Quatre Saisons, Avec Les Temps, Rose Bonbon and the largest piece in the exhibition La Fin du Monde, measuring over three metres wide.
Dating from the last ten years, the paintings exemplify Pastor’s signature abstract and gestural technique that incorporates the four elements of water, earth, wind and fire. In creating the works, Pastor uses raw pigments sourced from the mountains of Morocco, which he applies instinctively and expressively. After this process, the artist often leaves the canvases outside, exposing them to rain, wind, and even naked flames. In this way, the artist shares the creative act with the environment in a process that incorporates elements of action painting and land art, resulting in paintings that embody a symbiotic collaboration between man and nature.
Courtesy Robilant+Voena
Together, these paintings evoke the beauty and precarity of the natural world, especially highlighting the vulnerability of the oceans and desert regions. Many of the paintings are characterised by fissures in their surface, like scars. These cracks in the Bleu Monochrome works allude to melting sea ice, while the patterns in Rose Bonbon paintings suggest the drought-ridden earth, cracking under the stress of oppressive conditions. The materiality of this latter series is particularly pertinent to the subject matter; the naturally-occurring pink-hued pigment that forms the basis of the Rose Bonbon paintings is extremely rare due to its dependency on lower earth temperatures that have now been surpassed, meaning that no more of the pigment will be produced organically. Across the exhibition, many paintings draw attention to the increasing frequency of natural disasters and the subsequent devastation.Abstract compositions, comprising surging passages of blues, oranges and white, interlaced with cracks, suggest a fragility even in the most monumental paintings. Indeed, the large scale of many of the works create an almost immersive sensation for the viewer, encouraging both physical and visceral responses to the paintings that have a sense of the Sublime.
With the climate emergency as the driving force of Pastor’s practice, this exhibition offers an opportunity for visitors to New York during Climate Week to encounter artworks that are at once aesthetically captivating but also resonate with the theme of the events around the city, calling for immediate and widespread action to counteract our damaging impacts on the environment. Pastor’s paintings embody the power of art to inspire change; these meditative works, mesmerising in their infinite detail and gravity, convey a message that extends far beyond the walls of the gallery.
Philippe Pastor 21st September–19th October 2024, R+V New York, 19 East 66th Street, NY
Private View: Saturday 21st September, 6–8pm
About the artist
Philippe Pastor (b. 1961, Monaco) is an artist whose wide-ranging practice encompasses painting, sculpture and mixed-media techniques. A determined advocate for the preservation of nature, Pastor uses his art to promote awareness and inspire action in support of environmental causes. His signature paintings are abstract compositions formed of natural pigment and other raw materials; his acclaimed sculpture series Les Arbres Brûlés (The Burnt Trees) evokes the devastation of forest fires and deforestation. Through these bodies of work, the artist seeks to convey an important message about the relationship between man and nature, emphasising the responsibility of mankind to protect our planet for future generations. The only artist to represent the Principality of Monaco on an international stage, both at the Venice Biennale (2007 and 2009), and as the official artist of the Monaco Pavilion at the 2015 Expo in Milan, Pastor uses his art as a platform to shine a light on pressing climate issues. He has collaborated with the United Nations as part of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), through his support and participation in the Project ‘Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign’.
Also with the UN, Pastor has installed Les Arbres Brûlés at environmental conferences across the globe, including in Singapore, New York and Monaco. A symbol of the fight against man’s destruction of the natural world, examples of this series have been installed in significant international public places, including at the United Nations African headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya (2006–present); Nice Côte d’Azur International Airport (2006–2016); Château des Marres, St. Tropez (2011–22); Gare de Montparnasse and Gare du Nord, Paris (2014–15); Sacha SOSNO Garden, MAMAC Museum, Nice (2019–20); and Saint-Paul de Vence (2022).
Other recent solo exhibitions include Bleu Pastor, Robilant+Voena, Forum Paracelsus, St. Moritz (2024); Comment Va Le Monde, Baux-de-Provence, France (2023); Philippe Pastor, Fin du Monde, Monaco Modern’Art, Monaco (2021); Philippe Pastor, Est-ce que ce Monde est Sérieux ?, Musée de Bormes-les-Mimosas, France (2020); Philippe Pastor, La Vie en Rose, Monaco Modern’Art, Monaco (2020); Philippe Pastor, Est-ce que ce Monde est Sérieux ?, Monaco Modern’Art, Monaco (2019).In addition to his exhibitions and installations, Pastor is the founder of Art & Environnement Association. Launched in 2007 under the patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco and Professor Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the Association organises art exhibitions and events to promote broad public awareness on climate change and the threats facing the planet.
