All smiles: James Joyce's '100 Likes' at Colette in Paris

As the London artist James Joyce walks through Colette pointing to his new works, it’s impossible to ignore the frequency with which he uses 'like' in conversation – as both phrasal placeholder and expression of interest. Normally, this would go unnoticed, but the observation is amplified by the fact that his show here is called '100 Likes'.
Spread out through the Paris store and concentrated in the upper gallery, the exhibition includes his collapsed smiley faces – their dislodged features now widely recognised after Banksy showcased them at his Dismaland 'bemusement park' last year. Titled Perseverance in the Face of Absurdity, the grouping of silkscreen print artist proofs have been mounted above the cash desk, presumably with no irony intended. Forever Ends, a new all-black acrylic version on canvas, greets people en route to the lower-level cafe.
The Likes series, meanwhile, can be found upstairs, where the bold palette and graphic statements establish a vibrant presence within the retail space. In the gallery, the prints run from wall to wall in alternating seven colours such that they seem to psychedelically signal affirmation en masse. There’s a greyscale grouping, too, for those who prefer a little less tonal enthusiasm. Joyce has pushed the idea furthest with the canvas works, arranged to create a new statement. Here, you see likes, but you may also see a geometric pattern. You may even detect traces of Sol Lewitt, Frank Stella and, of course, Robert Indiana.
Indeed, Joyce does not deny that his Like concept picks up where Indiana’s Love left off, noting how, thanks largely to social media, we have traded one word for another. One the one hand, a cliché; on the other, an empty sentiment. As Joyce tells Wallpaper*, ‘Everyone likes everything virtually. [The word] has lost its meaning, or at least, its sincerity.’
But the intriguing aspect of his work is how he interprets a universal sign or symbol and then leaves it completely open to interpretation – spelling it out literally, yet not in meaning. For every person who views his reimagined acid house faces as funny, another will see them as existential. ‘You can look at it on a purely superficial level or you can read into it. But I like that about it – and I think that’s what gives art power, when it’s not pinned down, but you can read into it whatever you like,’ he says.
Colette’s Sarah Andelman liked Joyce’s stylised semiotics so much that she has rolled out a number of exclusive products: t-shirts with flocked features, a candle that smells faintly illicit, skateboards, postcards and pins. Asked whether he possesses a glass half-full or half-empty frame of mind, Joyce replies, 'I guess a bit of both and maybe that’s why I’ve got this duality of ideas – you can’t have one without the other.'
Incidentally, it seems his five-year-old son already has an appreciation for his father’s work – although whether at face value or perhaps as something deeper remains unclear. Says the artist with a smile, 'He loves it.'
For every person who views Joyce's reimagined acid house faces as funny, another will see them as existential. Pictured left: Forever Ends, 2015. Right: Laugh, I Nearly Died, 2015
The Likes series can be found upstairs, where the bold palette and graphic statements establish a vibrant presence within the retail space
‘Everyone likes everything virtually,' Joyce explains. '[The word 'like'] has lost its meaning, or at least, its sincerity’. Pictured: 4 Likes, 2015
Joyce's acid house-channelling smiley faces (made famous by their appearance at Banksy's Dismaland last year) in situ downstairs at Colette
Pictured left: Pedestal, 2015. Right: Killing Time, Hanging Around and Cheap Distraction, 2015
INFORMATION
’100 Likes’ is on view until 27 February. For more information, visit Colette’s website
Imagery courtesy the artist
ADDRESS
213 rue Saint-Honoré, Paris
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Rediscover a classic midcentury hotel in Sydney
Fender Katsalidis leads a major renovation of the landmark Sofitel Sydney Wentworth hotel, pairing 1960s modernism with an elevated, Australian-minded reset
-
Haute Couture Week A/W 2025: what to expect
Five moments to look out for at Haute Couture Week A/W 2025 in Paris (starting Monday 7 July), from Glenn Martens’ debut for Maison Margiela to Demna’s Balenciaga swansong. Plus, ‘new beginnings’ from JW Anderson
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered
-
‘With a small gesture of buying a postcard, we all become copyists’: the Louvre’s celebration of copying speaks to human nature
Contemporary artists are invited to copy works from the Louvre in a celebration of the copyist’s art, a collaboration with Centre Pompidou-Metz
-
Wolfgang Tillmans brings a performative edge to bibliophilia at the Centre Pompidou’s library
As the Centre Pompidou’s library is emptied ahead of the venue’s five-year restoration, the German photographer moves in for a final fling of a Paris exhibition
-
A song for the dead – Josh Homme on performing for six million souls in the bowels of the Paris Catacombs
A rock band, a brush with death and an underground tomb coalesce in haunting new Queens of the Stone Age film, ‘Alive in the Catacombs’. Wallpaper* meets frontman Josh Homme and director Thomas Rames
-
The glory years of the Cannes Film Festival are captured in a new photo book
‘Cannes’ by Derek Ridgers looks back on the photographer's time at the Cannes Film Festival between 1984 and 1996
-
Technology, art and sculptures of fog: LUMA Arles kicks off the 2025/26 season
Three different exhibitions at LUMA Arles, in France, delve into history in a celebration of all mediums; Amy Serafin went to explore
-
Contemporary artist collective Poush takes over Château La Coste
Members of Poush have created 160 works, set in and around the grounds of Château La Coste – the art, architecture and wine estate in Provence
-
‘David Hockney 25’: inside the artist’s blockbuster Paris show
‘David Hockney 25’ has opened at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Wallpaper’s Hannah Silver took a tour of the colossal, colourful show
-
Jack White's Third Man Records opens a Paris pop-up
Jack White's immaculately-branded record store will set up shop in the 9th arrondissement this weekend