LONDON.- Pace will participate in the second-ever edition of Art Gstaad with a solo presentation of new and recent works by New York based artist Genesis Belanger. On view from February 14 to 16, Pace’s booth will be complemented by a curated viewing room featuring studies by Robert Longo, works on paper by Jean Dubuffet and Pablo Picasso, and a video work by Michal Rovner.
Uncover the Artist's Process: Gain insights into Belanger's creative process and the inspirations behind her intriguing works with Genesis Belanger by Amy Smith-Stewart (Contributor), Leigh Arnold (Contributor), Éric Troncy (Contributor).
Known for her work across porcelain and stoneware, metal, wood, and painting, Belanger creates tableaux that draw from, and critique, the aesthetics of capitalist production and consumption. The sculptures she has made for Art Gstaad explore the consequences of overwhelm, each work representing a mode of self-soothing that range from the quotidian to the hedonistic.
Describing her works as signifiers—images that represent a concept or object—Belanger has developed a visual language that is universally accessible to viewers. Her recent practice has embraced formal reduction, exemplified in Impolite to Look, 2025, which depicts various toiletries lined up in a bathroom cabinet. Inspired by overlaps between tromp l’oeil and Cubism, Belanger has cropped the view and flattened the picture plane by discarding with the shelves’ cavities altogether and rendering the cosmetics in relief. This pared-down approach sharpens the focus, allowing the artwork to deliver greater impact with fewer elements.
Anchoring the booth, the life-sized sculptures Even-Tempered and Unflappable, both 2025, depict a pair of anthropomorphised working lamps. With folded arms and flat, neutral hues, they evoke a retreat from the confrontation of difficult contemporary narratives. Other works, such as They Ate Cake and Provisions, both 2025, explore a spectrum of edible comforts. This new body of work operates on a dual plane: while representing objects and gestures of solace, the artworks themselves serve as self-referential antidotes to an increasingly volatile world.
Belanger, celebrated for her distinctive approach to ceramics, hand-builds rather than casts every element of her sculptures. Her idiosyncratic visual language—characterized by enlarged forms, airbrushed finishes, and muted tones—is achieved by mixing pigment directly into the clay before firing, leaving the surfaces unglazed. Belanger’s presentation in Gstaad follows her successful exhibition with Pace in London last year. This show marked an exciting evolution of subject and material in the artist’s practice, including the use of a richer palette and the creation of sculptures that can be placed both in and outdoors.
A capsule presentation within Pace’s booth will feature a curated selection of artworks, including works on paper by Dubuffet, Picasso, and Longo—some of the most significant artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Accompanying these will be a 2024 video work by Rovner, depicting the artist’s oft-employed poppy motif—a symbol that embodies both fragility and fortitude—in almost imperceptible motion.
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