Pace’s inaugural exhibition at its new Berlin Schöneberg space, Reverse Alchemy: Dubuffet, Basquiat, Nava, opened May 2, 2025, coinciding with Gallery Weekend Berlin. Curated by Oliver Shultz, it features works on paper by Jean Dubuffet, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Robert Nava, exploring their disruption of figuration through raw, expressive mark-making. Anchored in Dubuffet’s art brut, the show examines a “reverse alchemy” that strips “high art” to its unrefined essence, collapsing abstraction and figuration.

Dubuffet’s late 1970s–80s works, including Théâtres de mémoire, are juxtaposed with Basquiat’s contemporaneous drawings and Nava’s recent pieces, highlighting their shared rejection of traditional beauty. Basquiat, influenced by Dubuffet, and Nava, with his mythic, gestural figures, extend this legacy of anti-figuration.

Housed in Die Tankstelle, a converted 1950s gas station shared with Galerie Judin, the exhibition marks Pace’s 65th anniversary and its deepened European presence, following a 2023 Berlin office opening. A concurrent Tom of Finland show at Galerie Judin complements this exploration of high-low art boundaries. The exhibition runs until June 14, 2025.

Reverse Alchemy: Dubuffet, Basquiat, Nava / Pace Berlin. Berlin (Germany), May 4, 2025.