George Condo will stage two major exhibitions with Hauser & Wirth in 2027, marking the artist’s first projects with the gallery since rejoining its roster less than a year after his departure.
The exhibitions, opening in Paris and Palo Alto, follow Condo’s return to Hauser & Wirth earlier this summer, reuniting the artist with the gallery after a brief separation and restoring its worldwide representation of one of contemporary painting’s most influential figures.
The announcement comes on the heels of George Condo: The Secret Agent, the artist’s acclaimed retrospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, which reaffirmed his position as one of the defining painters of the past four decades. The forthcoming exhibitions will build on that momentum, presenting new bodies of work in Europe and the United States.
Born in New Hampshire in 1957, Condo emerged in New York during the early 1980s, developing a distinctive visual language that fused Old Master painting, Cubism, Surrealism and Pop culture. His psychologically charged portraits and fractured figures have become some of the most recognisable images in contemporary art, exploring the complexities and contradictions of modern identity.
Condo first joined Hauser & Wirth in 2020 before leaving the gallery earlier this year. His return, announced just months later, marks an unusually swift reunion and signals a renewed chapter in the relationship ahead of the two major exhibitions.
“I am delighted to be working again with Hauser & Wirth,”
Condo said.
“The gallery has always understood the spirit of my work, and I look forward to sharing these new exhibitions.”
Hauser & Wirth President Marc Payot described Condo as
“one of the defining artists of our time,”
adding that the gallery is
“thrilled to embark on this next chapter together.”
The Paris and Palo Alto exhibitions will be Condo’s first with Hauser & Wirth since renewing the partnership and are expected to feature new paintings that continue his longstanding exploration of portraiture, abstraction and the human psyche.
About the artist
George Condo is one of the most influential painters of the past four decades, renowned for his psychologically charged portraits that combine classical painting with Cubism, Surrealism and contemporary popular culture. Coining the term “Artificial Realism” to describe his distinctive approach, Condo constructs imaginary characters whose fragmented faces and exaggerated expressions explore the complexities of identity, emotion and the human condition. His paintings, sculptures and works on paper balance technical virtuosity with humour, absurdity and unease, creating figures that appear simultaneously familiar and unsettling.
Since emerging in New York during the early 1980s, Condo has developed a practice that draws equally from the traditions of European Old Masters and modern art, citing influences including Velázquez, Rembrandt, Picasso and Goya while forging a visual language that is unmistakably his own. His fractured portraits and invented personalities challenge conventional notions of beauty and representation, using distortion not simply as a stylistic device but as a way of revealing the multiple psychological states that coexist within a single individual.
Condo’s work has been exhibited extensively at major museums worldwide, including retrospective exhibitions at the New Museum, New York; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Hayward Gallery, London; and Long Museum, Shanghai. His paintings are held in leading international collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Tate; Centre Pompidou; and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Through a career spanning more than forty years, George Condo has redefined contemporary portraiture, creating a body of work that bridges the history of painting with the anxieties, contradictions and imagination of modern life.
