For her first solo exhibition in Austria, Nathalie Du Pasquier presents a comprehensive journey through her work. On show at the Kunsthalle Wien, and curated by Luca Lo Pinto, the exhibition brings together paintings, patterns, sculptures, designs and other creations covering 35 years of her career, to construct a new understanding of her artistic development.
Born in Bordeaux, Milan-based Du Pasquier began her career in product design, becoming the youngest founding member of influential Milanese design and architecture collective Memphis at 23. In 1987, she switched her main focus to painting, and now sees herself primarily as a visual artist.
‘Big Objects Not Always Silent’ strives to see how Du Pasquier looks at still life in a fresh way, understanding how she considers and plays with the complex arrangement of forms and their spaces. Choreographed intuitively through their expressive and emotive relations, the exhibition is not structured chronologically, with Lo Pinto and Du Pasquier choosing to place pieces from completely different periods of her career side-by-side. Organised as different rooms or ‘houses’ in ‘a city’, each room presents a creative phase in order to demonstrate a natural evolution, as well as highlight recurring elements and processes in her work. ‘In the end,’ the artist says, ‘I wanted to create a “setup” with the elements collected during this long period, which could be considered as one single piece.'
Some of these include a ‘House of Drawings’, featuring works from her period as a designer in the 1980s, as well as her return to drawing in 2009; and ‘House 2’, which showcases paintings created from meticulously arranged sets of objects. The ‘streets’ of the installation city are adorned with linking pieces and carpets that Du Pasquier has designed over the years. As part of the exhibition, Kunsthalle Wien will also present a series of serigraphy workshops and tours open to the public.
A wide range of works are included, such as paintings, patterns, sculptures, designs, ceramics, carpets and other creations, from the beginnings of her career as a young designer to her segue into painting as a visual artist today
Du Pasquier and curator Luca Lo Pinto chose not to structure the exhibition chronologically, instead choosing to place pieces from completely different periods of her career side-by-side. Pictured: Citta, 1984. Right: Big Drawing, 2013
Organised as different rooms or ‘houses’ in ‘a city’, each presents a creative phase to demonstrate a natural evolution, as well as highlight recurring elements and processes in her work. Du Pasquier looks at still life in a fresh way, through how she considers and plays with the arrangement of forms
The ‘streets’ of the installation city are adorned with pieces that do not quite fit into any room, but somehow seem to link the different themes and phases
‘What bores me about the art world is the myth that art is so precious and that it should be so expensive. Art is just what you do. It is not less worthwhile to make a pattern or a carpet than a painting in the end,’ the artist says. Pictured: C.R.A.F.T., 2002
INFORMATION
‘Big Objects Not Always Silent’ is on view until 13 November. For more information, visit the Kunsthalle Wien website
Photography courtesy Kunsthalle Wien
ADDRESS
Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
Museumsplatz 1
1070 Vienna
TELEPHONE
43.152 1890
-
Sonoforma fashions guitar furniture for players who want to blend sound into their interiorThe new Sonoforma Rhapsody guitar cabinet splices mid-century lines with sonic innards, creating an amplifier that instantly feels right at home
-
In the heart of Basque Country, Bjarke Ingels unveils a striking modular building devoted to culinary researchSee what the architect cooked up for the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián, Spain
-
Ten pyjama shirts good enough to wear out of the bedroom and onto the streetFrom Prada to Dolce & Gabbana, designers have embraced the louche elegance of the pyjama shirt this season. Here, the Wallpaper* style team select ten of the best
-
Jean-Michel Othoniel takes over Avignon for his biggest ever exhibitionOriginally approached by Avignon to mark their 25th anniversary as the European Capital of Culture, Jean-Michel Othoniel more than rose to the challenge, installing 270 artworks around the city
-
Joel Quayson’s winning work for Dior Beauty at Arles considers the theme ‘Face-to-Face’ – watch it hereQuayson, who has won the 2025 Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents at Arles, imbues his winning work with a raw intimacy
-
What to see at Rencontres d’Arles 2025, questioning power structures in the state and familySuppressed memories resurface in sharply considered photography at Rencontres d'Arles 2025. Here are some standout photographers to see
-
‘With a small gesture of buying a postcard, we all become copyists’: the Louvre’s celebration of copying speaks to human natureContemporary artists are invited to copy works from the Louvre in a celebration of the copyist’s art, a collaboration with Centre Pompidou-Metz
-
The glory years of the Cannes Film Festival are captured in a new photo book‘Cannes’ by Derek Ridgers looks back on the photographer's time at the Cannes Film Festival between 1984 and 1996
-
Technology, art and sculptures of fog: LUMA Arles kicks off the 2025/26 seasonThree different exhibitions at LUMA Arles, in France, delve into history in a celebration of all mediums; Amy Serafin went to explore
-
Contemporary artist collective Poush takes over Château La CosteMembers of Poush have created 160 works, set in and around the grounds of Château La Coste – the art, architecture and wine estate in Provence
-
The women making digital art before the internet'Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991' at Kunsthalle Vienna & recently at MUDAM Luxembourg, doesn’t pretend to portray the totality of tech in art, instead taking the specific 31-year period of the title to shed light upon 48 women artists who engaged critically with computation
