New York – Pace is pleased to present Endling, an exhibition of new annual simulations by John Gerrard, at its 510 West 25th Street space in New York. Marking Gerrard’s first major solo show with Pace, the presentation will run from June 28 to August 12. The artworks on view in Endling are the result of 20 years of game engine development by the artist.
Gerrard creates virtual worlds in his game engine-based, politically resonant artworks that take the form of simulations. His custom-programmed, generative, digital works have examined issues related to energy production, food systems, information flows, and other timely subjects.
Endling, the title of Gerrard’s exhibition with Pace in New York, refers to the last individual member of a given species before its extinction. This title reflects Gerrard’s interest in the global impact of certain political conditions and behaviors. With these concerns at the core of the artist’s simulations, the exhibition examines the complex relationships between political power, nationhood, energy production, and environmental exploitation.
The exhibition will feature three new and recent large-scale simulations by Gerrard: Flare (Oceania) (2022), Endling (Martha) (2021), and washington.stream (2022). These virtual worlds will run on the local times of their respective subjects—Tonga, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles—during their presentations in New York. Throughout the exhibition’s run, the doors of 510 West 25th Street will remain open, inviting viewers to engage with the public-facing simulations as part of a communal experience. Extending the gallery into the street, Flare (Oceania) will be immediately visible to passersby.
Flare (Oceania) features a gas flare, burning in the form of a flag, in the South Pacific Ocean near Tonga. Based on photographs of the ocean captured by activist and artist Uili Lousi, Flare (Oceania) meditates on the existential threat heating oceans pose to low-lying lands as well as the economic and geopolitical factors contributing to the climate crisis. Functioning as the centerpiece of the exhibition, Flare (Oceania), which is commissioned by Bridgitt Evans, will be presented on an 18 by 18-foot high-resolution screen provided by Roe Visual, a leading LED display manufacturer with whom Gerrard has previously collaborated.
Endling (Martha) is a portrait of the last known American passenger pigeon, who was posthumously named Martha, after First Lady Martha Washington, following the bird’s death in 1914. Gerrard’s simulation draws from historic photographs and recent scans of the bird’s preserved body, showing Martha in her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo, where she spent the final years of her life. The simulation centers on the bird’s unwavering, intense eye contact with viewers, meditating on one of the most catastrophic population collapses in recorded history. Rendered in blackand-white, Endling (Martha), commissioned by Ahmet Avcioglu, Borusan Contemporary, is Gerrard’s first monochromatic simulation.
washington.stream depicts the sprawling 405 freeway in Los Angeles, hugely congested with traffic. The 30,000- car simulation features the headlights and taillights of vehicles in both nighttime and daytime conditions. Grappling with the deleterious effects of mass consumption and energy use, washington.stream conveys deeply political messages through its semi-abstract composition. washington.stream is commissioned by Scott Hoffman.
Focusing on the intersections of energy, politics, and expressions of national identity, Endling is conceptually linked
to Gerrard’s presentation of six wall-mounted simulations at Pace’s East Hampton gallery, on view from June 23 to
- Coinciding with his show at Pace in New York, the artist’s East Hampton presentation features wall-mounted iterations of Flare (Oceania), Endling (Martha), and washington.stream. The show also includes Leaf Work (2020) and Corn Work (2020), both of which were commissioned by the Galway International Arts Festival, as well as the new Crystalline Work (2022), which features a robot arm arranging ice crystals as part of an examination of geoengineering and climate change.
Gerrard’s work currently figures in the 2022 Biennale of Sydney, and the artist participated in the Gwangju Biennale and Thailand Biennial in 2021. In 2019, Gerrard’s work was exhibited in the Okayama Art Summit in Japan. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bornemisza in Madrid; the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.; and other international venues. His work can be found in the collections of major institutions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, LACMA, Tate in London, the Pinault Collection in Paris, and elsewhere.
John Gerrard (b. 1974, North Tipperary, Ireland) attended the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University, England (1994–97), where he earned a BFA in sculpture. He then received an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1994–97), and an MSc from Trinity College, Dublin (2000–01). His innovative practice explores the divisions between portrait, landscape, and history painting, generating moving images that no longer belong to ‘time-based media.’ Gerrard rethinks the monumentalism of Land art in the age of Google Earth and explores an expanded arena of choreography and performance, keeping pace with the subtle complexity of its subject matter. The artist has developed a practice involving trans-historical collage, overlaying terrain, figure, image, and gesture captured from real bodies and sites using satellite data, intensive photographic documentation, 3-D scanning, and motion capture. The resulting works are sculptures that exist in virtual space, within environments that include complex algorithmic choreographies, multiple moving viewpoints, and realistic cycles of day and night; they are a projection of a highly complex data set, every aspect of which is continually calculated and rendered in real-time. These moving images have never existed as a time series, and each frame is produced and rendered dynamically. The nature of such images, and the emerging visual culture they belong to, remains an open question for art history and theory. However, Gerrard’s work recalls Beckett’s minimal theatre of exhaustion more than Hollywood CGI movies. Each of the works sets in place an algorithmic set of conditions, which are then left to unfold within the time and space of the virtual world. The viewer—a technologically-mediated subject, scanning the scene at a distance, through the virtual cameras that orbit the scene—is asked to piece together the logic of their movements and the nature and meaning of the performance.
Pace is a leading international art gallery representing some of the most influential contemporary artists and estates from the past century, holding decades-long relationships with Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Barbara Hepworth, Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, and Mark Rothko. Pace enjoys a unique U.S. heritage spanning East and West coasts.
Since its founding by Arne Glimcher in 1960, Pace has developed a distinguished legacy as an artist-first gallery that mounts seminal historical and contemporary exhibitions. Under the current leadership of President and CEO Marc Glimcher, Pace continues to support its artists and share their visionary work with audiences worldwide by remaining at the forefront of innovation. Now in its seventh decade, the gallery advances its mission through a robust global program—comprising exhibitions, artist projects, public installations, institutional collaborations, performances, and interdisciplinary projects. Pace has a legacy in art bookmaking and has published over five hundred titles in close collaboration with artists, with a focus on original scholarship and on introducing new voices to the art historical canon.
The gallery has also spearheaded explorations into the intersection of art and technology through its new business models, exhibition interpretation tools, and representation of artists cultivating advanced studio practices. Pace’s presence in Silicon Valley since 2016 has bolstered its longstanding support of experimental practices and digital artmaking. As part of its commitment to technologically engaged artists within and beyond its program, Pace launched a hub for its Web3 activity, Pace Verso, in November 2021.
Today, Pace has ten locations worldwide including a European foothold in London and Geneva, and two galleries in New York—its headquarters at 540 West 25th Street, which welcomed almost 120,000 visitors and programmed 20 shows in its first six months, and an adjacent 8,000 sq. ft. exhibition space at 510 West 25th Street. Pace was one of the first international galleries to establish outposts in Asia, where it operates permanent gallery spaces in Hong Kong and Seoul, as well as an office and viewing room in Beijing. In 2020, Pace opened satellite exhibition spaces in East Hampton and Palm Beach, with continued programming on a seasonal basis. In 2022, the gallery opened its West Coast flagship in Los Angeles, and continues to operate its gallery in Palo Alto.
Visitor Rating: 3 Stars