©RUTHIE ABEL
Arlene Shechet, the sculptor known for her ceramic works that involve experiments with chance and elements of Zen Buddhist thinking, will now be represented by Pace Gallery, which has spaces in New York, London, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Geneva, and Palo Alto, California. She was previously represented in New York by Sikkema Jenkins & Co., and is currently also represented in Chicago by Corbett vs. Dempsey and in Los Angeles by Susan Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.
“My artists have always talked about her, whether it’s Adam Pendleton or Tara Donovan or Thomas Nozkowski,” Marc Glimcher, Pace Gallery’s president and CEO, told ARTnews. “They love her work. Hers are the kind of shows where [our artists] say, ‘If you don’t see the Arlene Shechet show, you’re not my friend anymore!’ They’re the kind of shows where artists come back with their minds expanded. What’s more important than that? Nothing.”
Shechet has in recent years established herself as one of the most important artists working with in ceramics. Her beguiling works, which were the subject of a major survey at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 2015, often appeared to have shattered or morphed during their firing. Meissen ceramics, Zen Buddhism, and Post-Minimalism have all served as reference points in her work, which calls attention to the way objects are presented in institutions, how knowledge is passed between cultures, and how sculptures get made.
“I like evidence of how the thing is made,” Shechet told ARTnews in 2015. “I find that that actually makes something even more mysterious. To know more, strangely, adds mystery. I don’t even want to deconstruct that.”
Pace will have its first show with Shechet in Chelsea in 2019. Before then, however, Shechet has a few projects on the horizon. This April, she will have a solo show at Almine Rech in Paris and organize a Judy Linn exhibition at the Cue Art Foundation in New York. In September, she will unveil a new outdoor sculpture made partly of porcelain in New York’s Madison Square Park.