Gagosian will present Christo: Air, a new exhibition bringing together rarely seen works by Christo and unveiling the first-ever realisation of Air Package on a Ceiling, a monumental installation conceived by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1968 but never previously realised.
Artwork © Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, Photo: Carroll T. Hartwell Courtesy Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation and Gagosian
Organised around the theme of air — invisible, intangible and essential — the exhibition traces some of the earliest conceptual ideas that later developed into the duo’s large-scale interventions in architecture and landscape.
At the centre of the exhibition is Air Package on a Ceiling, a vast internally illuminated suspended structure stretching 16 metres long and 10 metres wide. Originally conceived for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia in 1968, technical limitations prevented its construction at the time. More than half a century later, the project has now been realised in collaboration with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.
Occupying the full volume of the gallery, the installation descends to just above head height, transforming the surrounding architecture and requiring visitors to navigate around and beneath it. Suspended between sculpture and atmosphere, the work creates a physical encounter with ideas of space, scale and perception.
The exhibition also revisits Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s early investigations into “wrapped air,” works developed during the 1960s that trapped air inside transparent polyethylene forms bound with rope. These smaller sculptures turned something fundamentally invisible into a physical object, suggesting that meaning could emerge through framing and containment rather than through the object itself.
These experiments would become foundational to the artists’ later environmental projects, where wrapping buildings, landscapes, and public spaces transformed how viewers experienced familiar environments.
Accompanying the installation are archival materials, including the original 1968 model for Air Package on a Ceiling, preparatory drawings and collages that reveal the project’s development from a balloon-like freestanding structure into the suspended form realised today.
A second gallery focuses on Wrapped Automobile—Volvo, Model PV-544 (1981), a work not shown publicly for three decades. The piece originated from a personal request by art dealer Serge De Bloe, who asked Christo to preserve a car he was sentimentally attached to before replacing it. Wrapped by Christo in a Brussels body shop, the work transformed an everyday object into an emotional monument, balancing concealment with preservation.
The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to look back at the conceptual foundations of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s practice. Long before monumental projects transformed coastlines and cityscapes, the pair were already exploring ideas of absence, perception and temporary transformation through far smaller gestures.
Coinciding with the exhibition, Gagosian’s Burlington Arcade space will also host a dedicated Christo presentation featuring works on paper and publications focused on the artist’s practice.
Christo: Air revisits the origins of a body of work that would eventually reshape public space on an international scale — reminding audiences that some of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s most ambitious ideas began with something as simple and intangible as air.
CHRISTO Air, May 21st–August 21st, 2026, Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill
Opening reception: Thursday, May 21st, 6PM–8PM
