Robilant+Voena NY will open a new gallery space with the exhibition “Philippe Pastor”.

Robilant+Voena will present an exhibition of paintings by the Monegasque artist Philippe Pastor, featuring new works and examples from earlier series. The exhibition will open on September 21, 2024 in New York.

The show opens R+V’s new gallery on 66th Street, just moments from Central Park, and is Pastor’s first solo exhibition in the United States. The New York gallery will be headed by a new director, Fred Bancroft, who joins R+V from Coleman Bancroft, the art brokerage and consulting firm he founded in 2006.

The exhibition will be part of Climate Week NYC (September 22–29), an initiative that aligns with Pastor’s mission to call for action through his art, calling attention to our individual and collective responsibility to preserve our environment for future generations. Presented across four rooms in the new R+V gallery space, a journey through the exhibition will allow visitors to meditate on the spectacular natural beauty of the world, as well as consider the perils that currently face the delicate balance of our planet. The exhibition highlights how Pastor’s artistic practice complements his work as an activist; he has consistently used his art as a platform to shed light on urgent climate issues, including his work with the United Nations through the UN Environment Program and through his foundation, the Art & Environnement Association in 2007, which organizes exhibitions and events to promote broad public awareness of climate change and the threats to our planet.

Featuring works from several of the artist’s most important series, including a room devoted to his signature Bleu Monochrome series, the exhibition will introduce American audiences to the ambitious breadth and diversity of Pastor’s work. In addition to the serenity of his blue abstracts, the exhibition will include dynamic examples from the series Les Quatre Saisons, Avec Les Temps, Rose Bonbon, and the largest work in the exhibition, La Fin du Monde, measuring more than three meters wide.

The paintings, created over the last ten years, are an example of Pastor’s characteristic abstract and gestural technique, which combines the four elements: water, earth, wind and fire. In creating his works, Pastor uses raw pigments from the mountains of Morocco, which he applies instinctively and expressively. After this process, the artist often leaves the canvases outside, exposing them to rain, wind and even open flames. In this way, the artist shares the creative act with the environment in a process that combines elements of action painting and land art, resulting in paintings that embody the symbiotic cooperation between man and nature.

Together, these paintings evoke the beauty and precariousness of the natural world, particularly highlighting the fragility of oceans and desert regions. Many of the paintings feature surface cracks, like scars. These cracks in Bleu Monochrome’s works allude to melting sea ice, while the patterns in Rose Bonbon’s paintings suggest drought-stricken earth, cracking under the stress of oppressive conditions. The materiality of this final series is particularly relevant to the subject; the naturally occurring pink pigment that underpins Rose Bonbon’s paintings is extremely rare due to its dependence on lower earth temperatures, which have already been surpassed, meaning that there will be no more organically produced pigment. Throughout the exhibition, many paintings draw attention to the increasing frequency of natural disasters and subsequent devastation. The abstract compositions, consisting of increasing gradations of blue, orange and white, interspersed with cracks, suggest fragility in even the most monumental paintings. Indeed, the vast scale of many of the works creates an almost immersive experience for the viewer, stimulating both a physical and emotional response to images imbued with a sense of the Sublime.

With the climate crisis as a driving force in Pastor’s practice, this exhibition offers visitors to New York during Climate Week an opportunity to encounter artworks that are both aesthetically captivating and resonant with the ongoing events across the city, calling for immediate and widespread action to counter our detrimental impact on the environment. Pastor’s paintings embody the power of art to inspire change; these meditative works, mesmerizing in their infinite detail and gravity, convey a message that reaches far beyond the gallery walls.

Philippe Pastor September 21–October 19, 2024 R+V New York, 19 East 66th Street, NY

Private Show: Saturday, September 21, 6:00–8:00 PM

About the artist

Philippe Pastor (born 1961, Monaco) is an artist whose broad practice includes painting, sculpture and mixed media. A strong advocate of environmental protection, Pastor uses his art to promote awareness and inspire action on behalf of the environment. His paintings are abstract compositions made of natural pigment and other raw materials; his acclaimed sculpture series Les Arbres Brûlés (Burnt Trees) evokes the devastation caused by forest fires and deforestation. Through these works, the artist seeks to convey an important message about the relationship between man and nature, emphasizing humanity’s responsibility to protect our planet for future generations. As the only artist to represent the Principality of Monaco internationally, both at the Venice Biennale (2007 and 2009) and as an official artist of the Monaco Pavilion at Expo 2015 in Milan, Pastor uses his art as a platform to shed light on urgent climate issues. He collaborated with the United Nations through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through support and participation in the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign project.

Also in collaboration with the UN, Pastor has installed Les Arbres Brûlés at environmental conferences around the world, including Singapore, New York, and Monaco. A symbol of the fight against human destruction of the natural world, examples of the series have been installed in important international public spaces including the UN African Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya (2006–present); Nice Côte d’Azur International Airport (2006–2016); the Château des Marres, Saint-Tropez (2011–2022); the Gare de Montparnasse and Gare du Nord, Paris (2014–2015); the Sacha SOSNO Garden, MAMAC Museum, Nice (2019–2020); and Saint-Paul de Vence (2022).

Other recent solo exhibitions include: Bleu Pastor, Robilant+Voena, Forum Paracelsus, St. Moritz (2024); Comment Va Le Monde, Baux-de-Provence, France (2023); Philippe Pastor, Fin du Monde, Monaco Modern’Art, Monaco (2021); Philippe Pastor, Est-ce que ce Monde est Sérieux?, Musée de Bormes-les-Mimosas, France (2020); Philippe Pastor, La Vie en Rose, Monaco Modern’Art, Monaco (2020); Philippe Pastor, Est-ce que ce Monde est Sérieux?, Monaco Modern’Art, Monaco (2019). In addition to exhibitions and installations, Pastor is the founder of the Art & Environment Association. The association was established in 2007 under the patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco and Professor Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. It organizes art exhibitions and events aimed at raising public awareness of climate change and the threats it faces. planet.

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