Exhibitions

Pace African & Oceanic art has presented exhibitions at our 32 East 57th Street galleries since 1971. This page includes a selection of recent exhibitions; for a more comprehensive list, please refer to our Exhibition History.

Recent Past

From the Desert’s Edge: Art from Mali & Burkina Faso
February 22 - May 30, 2020 The exhibition, on view through May 30, features over 60 sculptures in wood, iron, copper alloy and terracotta dating from the 11th to 19th centuries. Read more

Sculpture from West Africa
May 24 - July 19, 2019 Read more

Sculpture from Melanesia
May 24 - June 29, 2018 Sculpture from Melanesia features a selection of work from the Abelam people from the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. Read more

Ancient Stone Sculpture of West Africa
May 24 - June 29, 2018 Ancient Stone Sculpture of West Africa features objects produced by little studied and understood Sherbro and Bura cultures that flourished in Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso between the 11th to 16th centuries. While wood is the medium of choice for the majority of carvers, stone was occasionally used by these... Read more

Power of the Ancestors: Sculpture from Central Africa
March 2 - April 15, 2017 Power of the Ancestors: Sculpture from Central Africa, an exhibition of over 30 works, represents the broad range of masks, figures and ritual fetish objects from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo and Gabon. Although we may not fully understand the function of each object, its... Read more

Traditional Sculpture from Mali
November 11, 2016 - February 24, 2017 Traditional Sculpture from Mali features a selection of masks and figures from the Dogon and Bambara people. The artworks exhibited show the breadth of artistic expression found in this region. Read more

Shaped Stone of the Sahara
November 4 - December 19, 2015 Pace Primitive is pleased to present Shaped Stone of the Sahara, a collection of Neolithic stone objects from the south central Sahara known as the Teneré desert. This exhibition of about 100 pieces from the collection of Joseph Knopfelmacher is the first of its kind. Throughout history, like all regions... Read more

Fine Sculpture from Three Continents: Africa, Asia & Oceania
November 7 - December 13, 2014 Fine Sculpture from Three Continents: Africa, Asia & Oceania presents a selection of figures that best represents non-European artistic traditions. The exhibition shows the various ways in which the human form is depicted from naturalistic to almost abstract. No matter the medium, from wood to terracotta to stone, each piece... Read more

Ryan McGinness: Geometric Primitives
March 30 - April 28, 2012 Ryan McGinness: Geometric Primitives is an exhibition of the artist's new work made in collaboration with Pace Primitive. In constructive solid geometry, primitives are simple geometric shapes such as the cube, cylinder, sphere, cone, pyramid, and torus. The schematic reduction of the human figure historically found in African art profoundly... Read more

Icon/Effigy
November 4 - December 23, 2010 Icon/Effigy is an exhibition which draws from the traditions of native sculpture and the work of important contemporary artists to explore the symbolic role of portraiture. In traditional African and Oceanic art, effigies of ancestors and leaders are the fulcrum of social ritual. These representations symbolically guard and instruct the... Read more