The System is Alive

Perrotin is pleased to present 'The System is Alive', a group exhibition featuring thirteen contemporary artists whose practices engage with a range of systemic frameworks. Working across diverse media, these artists challenge the systems that shape everyday life—addressing constructed logics, emotional infrastructures, cultural narratives, and sociopolitical norms.

The first cluster in the show explores abstracted systems through repetition, process, and material encoding. Josh Sperling’s sculptural compositions emphasize modular forms and rhythm. Bernard Frize’s paintings blend rule-bound logic with chance, while Gregor Hildebrandt’s minimalist works probe cultural memory embedded in media.

A second cluster delves into emotional and personal systems. Sophie Calle’s photographs blur documentation and surveillance, capturing private worlds and imagined rituals. Bharti Kher’s metaphysically charged sculptures interrogate daily routines with surreal and spiritual force. Cultural rewiring comes into focus in the works of Nina Chanel Abney, whose vibrant, fragmented paintings critique how race and gender are constructed in media. Takashi Murakami fuses pop culture, hyperreal aesthetics, and traditional Japanese techniques, while Paola Pivi transforms everyday objects into surreal inversions, defying perceptual norms.

The final cluster highlights acts of protest in public space. Iván Argote uses subtle, humorous visual resistance to question dominant political narratives embedded in monuments. Barry McGee, rooted in graffiti culture, creates socially charged interventions that expose inequality and critique authority.

The System is Alive brings these diverse practices into dialogue, revealing the intricate webs that shape our lives, logics, and cultural landscapes. The exhibition invites viewers not just to witness the unravelling of systems but to imagine new possibilities.