“All our projects involve areas, whether in an urban or a rural area, where people live. Jeanne-Claude and I have always been interested in the space that people use […]. We’ve always said that it was wonderful to lend us the spaces that belonged to others.” – CHRISTO
Galerie Gmurzynska is thrilled to announce “Nature | Environments,” Christo’s third solo exhibition with the gallery.
The exhibition, curated by Lorenza Giovanelli, will feature collages and drawings dating from the artist’s early projects to the never realized Over the River, and will explore Christo’s diverse artistic work within natural environments worldwide.
Starting with Wrapped Coast in 1969 in Australia to the iconic Umbrellas, the incredible Running Fence and the Wrapped Trees at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, the works in the exhibition bear witness to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s often decades long efforts to realize their projects. The meticulous preparation as well as the aesthetic aspects of the collages and sketches show the dedication and work processes behind the implementation of the installations:
“Works on paper can be a combination of photographs, fragments of other projects, technical information […] the drawings reflect the evolution of the project. It doesn’t emerge from my thoughts ‘fully equipped’.” – CHRISTO
“Taking place simultaneously in Zurich and New York – evoking The Umbrellas project, conceived and realized as a diptych – this exhibition aims to explore the kaleidoscopic variations of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s environmental art and how it dialogued with the ecosystem they set within.” – Lorenza Giovanelli
The exhibitions at Galerie Gmurzynska further coincide with the unveiling of the first major project realized since the artist’s passing in 2020: L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, which will wrap the Arc de Triomphe in blue fabric and is set to be presented in Paris and to the world in September 2021.