Artist Profile

Philippe Parreno

Portrait of Philippe Parreno

Philippe Parreno studied at École des Beaux-Arts in Grenoble, and Institut des hautes études en arts plastiques at Palais de Tokyo, Paris. He lives and works in Paris, France.

 

Philippe Parreno is a French artist who rose to prominence in the 1990s, earning critical acclaim for his work that spans a diversity of media, including film, sculpture, drawing, and text.

 

Parreno radically redefined the exhibition experience by taking it as a medium, placing its construction at the heart of his process. Exploring the possibilities of the exhibition as a coherent “object” rather than as a collection of individual works, it becomes a veritable open space, a format that differs on each occasion, and a frame for things to appear and disappear.

 

Parreno conceives his exhibitions as a scripted space where a series of events unfolds. He seeks to transform the exhibition visit into a singular experience that plays with spatial and temporal boundaries and the sensory experience of the visitor who is guided through the space by the orchestration of sound and image. For the artist, the exhibition is less a total work of art than a necessary interdependence that offers an on-going series of open possibilities.

 

Philippe Parreno has exhibited extensively. Recent solo exhibitions and commissions include: Voices, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul (2024); Philippe Parreno – Marilyn, Espace Louis Vuitton, Munich (2023); Echo2: a Carte Blanche to Philippe Parreno, Rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris (2022); La Quinta del Sordo, Museo Prado, Madrid (2022); La Quinta del Sordo, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (2021); Danny / No More Reality, LUMA, Arles (permanent); Echo, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019–ongoing); A Manifestation of Objects, WATARI-UM, Tokyo (2019-20); Elsewhen, Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia, Venice (2019); Philippe Parreno, Gropius Bau, Berlin (2018); Two Automatons for One Duet, The Art Institute, Chicago (2018); La Levadura y El Anfitrión (The Yeast and The Host), Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2017); Synchronicity, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2017); A Time Coloured Space, The Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (2017); Thenabouts, ACMI – Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne (2016-17); Anywhen, Hyundai Commission 2016: Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London (2016-17); H{N)YPN(Y}OSIS, Park Avenue Armory, New York (2015); Hypothesis, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2015); How Can We Tell the Dancers from the Dance, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2014); Anywhere, Anywhere Out of the World, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013); Philippe Parreno, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (2012); Philippe Parreno, Serpentine Gallery, London (2010); November, IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2009); 8 juin 1968 – 7 septembre 2009, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2009), and May, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich (2009).

 

Selected group exhibitions include: Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present, Kalba Kindergarten, Sharjah (2023); SHIFT. AI and a future community, Marta Herford Museum, Herford (2023); Une seconde d'éternité, Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection, Paris, (2022); Maja Hoffmann / LUMA Foundation Collection: The Impermanent Display II, LUMA Foundation, Arles (2022), This Language that is every Stone, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2022); Arcimboldo Face to Face, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (2021); The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2021); Natureculture, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (2021); Ouverture, Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris (2021); Mourning. On Loss and Change, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg (2020); In the Spotlight of the Night – Life in the Gloom, Marta Herford, Herford (2019); Luogo e Segni, Punta della Dogana, Venice (2019); The Artist is Present, YUZ Museum, Shanghai (2018); The Train: RFK’s Last Journey, SFMOMA, San Francisco (2018); Art and Entertainment, MAMCO, Geneva (2018); In Tune with the World, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2018); VIVA ARTE VIVA, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice (2017); Summer in Shanghai, Pond Society, Shanghai (2017); Infinite Garden. From Giverny to Amazonia, Centre Pompidou – Metz (2017); Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016); Development, Okayama Art Summit, Okayama (2016); Solaris Chronicles, LUMA, Parc des Ateliers, Arles (2014); The Bride and The Bachelors, The Barbican Art Gallery, London (2013); The Light Show, Hayward Gallery, London (2013); Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2012); To the Moon Via the Beach, LUMA, Arles (2012), and Il Tempo del Postino: A Group Show, Opera House, Manchester (2007) which he co-curated.

 

His work is held in the collections of various institutions including: Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel; Fundação de Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Kanazawa Museum of the 21st Century; LACMA, Los Angeles; LUMA, Arles; Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; MUSAC, León; Musée national d'art moderne – Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Pinault Collection, Paris; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Modern, London; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.