Opening Reception
10 June, 6 – 8 pm
For over five decades, pioneering conceptual artist Charles Gaines has used systems to create series of works that mine the complex relationship between perception and meaning. For his first exhibition at Hauser & Wirth’s Paris gallery, Gaines will debut new Plexiglas works from his Numbers and Trees series, first conceived by the artist in 1986. Focusing on acacia trees, the nine compositions are based on photographs the artist shot during a trip to Tanzania in 2023. Gaines will also debut the latest installment from his Manifestos series, developed whilst in residence at the gallery’s Somerset location in 2025.
Trees have been a central motif in Gaines’ practice since the 1970s, when he first began plotting their forms through systems of numbered grids in the Walnut Tree Orchard series (1975 – 2014). By converting the tree form into a gridded geometry, Gaines devised a distinctive process for charting and comparing differences, while also challenging the dominance of subjectivity in artistic expression.
Since 2008 across his Manifestos series, Gaines has disarmed and drawn upon historical texts, uniting the rational, mathematical and lyrical structures of music with the irrationality of violence, racial tensions and social injustice. Comprised of a new musical composition, two-channel video, and five drawings, 'Manifestos 7' (2026) examines rulings from two landmark US Supreme Court cases, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Charles Gaines will collaborate on—along with Firelei Báez and Cristina Iglesias—and contribute to a group exhibition organised by Rashid Johnson at Hauser & Wirth Menorca from June 2026. A book of Gaines’ collected writings will be released by Hauser & Wirth Publishers in spring 2027.
Sobre l’artista
Charles Gaines
Figura clau en l’àmbit de l’art conceptual, el conjunt d’obra de Charles Gaines treballa amb fórmules i sistemes que interroguen les relacions entre els àmbits objectiu i subjectiu. Mitjançant un enfocament generatiu per crear sèries d’obres en diversos mitjans, Gaines ha construït un pont entre els primers artistes conceptuals de les dècades de 1960 i 1970 i les generacions posteriors que avui porten els límits del conceptualisme més enllà.
Nascut el 1944 a Charleston, Carolina del Sud, Gaines va començar la seva trajectòria com a pintor, obtenint el M.F.A. a la School of Art and Design del Rochester Institute of Technology el 1967. Durant la dècada de 1970, la seva obra va experimentar un gir dramàtic com a resposta al que ell mateix més tard anomenaria ‘l’espurna de l’epifania’. Aquesta revelació es va materialitzar en la sèrie ‘Regression’ (1973 – 1974), en la qual va explorar l’ús de sistemes matemàtics i numèrics per crear marques suaus numerades amb tinta sobre una quadrícula, amb cada dibuix construït a partir dels càlculs de l’anterior. Aquest enfocament metòdic va marcar el recorregut de l’artista durant les dècades següents.
Current Exhibitions
Glenn Ligon
Late at night, early in the morning, at noon
15 January – 11 April 2026
New York, 18th Street
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