Pace Gallery Unleashes 'The Monsters' of Contemporary Art in New Group Show
Curated by Robert Nava.
In the early 19th century, Mary Shelley shocked audiences with her cult-classic novel Frankenstein. Neither human nor animal, this creature, even 200 years later, continues to challenge our deepest fears. Its horror wasn’t just in its grotesque or garish appearance, but the unsettling suggestion that the boundary between man and monster might not be so clear after all.
Now, that same chimeric idea takes shape in The Monster, a new group exhibition at Pace Gallery Los Angeles. Curated by Robert Nava, the show celebrates “monstrous bodies and fabulations of monstrosity” in contemporary art, focusing on “fantasy monsters” rather than those rooted in everyday life. Through a mix of paintings, sculptures and works on paper, the exhibition takes viewers into a world of mythical creatures, childhood fears and dark corners of the unconscious.
With an impressive lineup of modern and contemporary artists, the show reflects Nava’s affinity for the psychological. Dark, existential yet lively at once, his figures take cues from ancient mythology to make anew, exploring the space between the raw and the refined with his unique “carefully done wrong” approach.
“Trafficking in the language of the uncanny and the grotesque, the figures that proliferate in these works are formless monstrosities of the imagination,” the gallery wrote. “Horrifying as they may be, they help us understand that a monster might, in the end, be the most human being of all.
On view are works by Nava, Huma Bhabha, Louise Bourgeois, Willem de Kooning, Jean Dubuffet, Nicole Eisenman, Ficre Ghebreyesus, Thomas Houseago, Rashid Johnson, Li Hei Di, Robert Longo, Tala Madani, Paul McCarthy, Ugo Rondinone, Lucas Samaras, Peter Saul, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith and Paul Thek. Head to Pace through March 22, 2025 to catch a glimpse of The Monster.
Pace Gallery Los Angeles
1201 S La Brea Ave,
Los Angeles, CA 90019
