Torkwase Dyson and Mark Rothko inaugurate Pace gallery’s new London home
Just in time for Frieze Week 2021, Pace has opened its much-anticipated Hanover Square gallery with shows by Torkwase Dyson and Mark Rothko

Pace Gallery has unveiled its new London home at 5 Hanover Square with inaugural shows by New York-based artist Torkwase Dyson and late abstract expressionist legend Mark Rothko.
Dyson’s Liquid a Place will serve as a dynamic inaugural offering for the gallery. On view from 8 October – 6 November, coinciding with Frieze Week 2021, the multi-media installation transforms one of the new gallery spaces with sculptures, activated by a site-specific sound piece.
Exterior view of Pace’s new gallery at 5 Hanover Square, London.
The artist, self-described as a painter across different media, grapples with how space is perceived and negotiated, particularly by Black and Brown bodies. On 7, 9 and 11 October as part of Pace Live, Dyson’s installation becomes a stage for leading writers, poets, dancers and musicians, selected by the artist, to engage with issues of environmental racism, spatial liberation and sensoria.
‘Working in London offers me the opportunity to lengthen my questions around human geography. This history/timeline of carving the earth, the construction of the canals and all the mechanistic infrastructure and architecture connected to it. And the River Thames’ history of docks and dispossession,’ says Dyson. ‘What is systemic world building? How do we separate planetary world building and issues of climate change and relationship/difference to the Western construction of the universal that flattens and disappears people? When I continue my research in the space it simply also opens up space to hold liberation strategies and recognise autonomy/self-possession.’
Detail of Torkwase Dyson’s Liquid a Place at Pace gallery, London.
Elsewhere in the gallery, Mark Rothko’s ‘1968: Clearing Away’, offers a show of rarely seen paintings on paper created during the final years of the artist’s life. These works, developed during a time of ill-health and personal troubles for Rothko, mark a shift in scale from his characteristically monumental canvases to smaller works on paper. Though intimate in scale, these works are no less intense, meditative or intoxicating.
The gallery, previously home to Blain Southern, which closed in 2020, has been reimagined by Jamie Fobert Architects, the practice involved with Pace’s original London gallery on Lexington Street.
Fobert has transformed the interior architecture of the existing building, creating versatile galleries across two floors. The levels will be connected by a new feature staircase rendered in black steel. ‘At the beginning of the project, Pace considered carefully the way gallery spaces should relate to workspaces within the new gallery. This became the generating idea of our work,’ says Fobert. ‘The positioning of volumes and connections, both horizontal and vertical, has created a sense of fluid movement through the building. Art spaces and workspaces are integrated, giving the visitor a continuous dynamic experience.’ *
‘Mark Rothko 1968: Clearing Away’, Pace Gallery, 5 Hanover Square, London, 8 October – 13 November 2021. Artwork on paper by Mark Rothko Copyright © 2020 by Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko. courtesy Pace Gallery
INFORMATION
Torkwase Dyson: ‘Liquid a Place’. Exhibition: 8 October – 6 November 2021 Performances: October 7, 9, 11, 2021
‘Mark Rothko 1968: Clearing Away’, 8 October – 13 November 2021
ADDRESS
Pace Gallery
5 Hanover Square
London W1S 1HE
Harriet Lloyd-Smith is the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.
-
Last chance to see: Sharjah Biennial 15, ‘Thinking Historically in the Present’
Built on the vision of late curator Okwui Enwezor, the Sharjah Biennial 15: ‘Thinking Historically in the Present’ offers a critical reframing of postcolonial narratives through major new commissions
By Amah-Rose Abrams • Published
-
For London Gallery Weekend 2023, the mood is hardcore
With London Gallery Weekend 2023 almost upon us (2 – 4 June), here’s our list of must-see art exhibitions
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Birkenstock celebrates its most memorable styles with colourful capsule (and matching socks)
Birkenstock marks the 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of the Gizeh, Arizona and Madrid sandals, respectively, with limited-edition versions
By Jack Moss • Published
-
The best London art exhibitions: a guide for this weekend
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions this weekend, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
By Harriet Lloyd Smith • Published
-
Matthew Day Jackson: ‘I want digital and analogue to fit together perfectly so we can regain our hands’
American artist-designer Matthew Day Jackson’s new show 'Against Nature' at Pace Gallery, New York offers a sharp digital spin on landscape painting
By Pei-Ru Keh • Published
-
Frieze New York 2023 opening day: what went down
As Frieze New York 2023 kicks off at The Shed (until 21 May), Jessica Klingelfuss reports on an electrifying opening day and highlights the unmissable offerings at this year's fair and beyond
By Jessica Klingelfuss • Published
-
The art fair personality test: what type of Frieze New York visitor are you?
Are you a selfie seeker or a champagne visualist? Take our art fair personality test to identify yourself at Frieze New York 2023 (17-21 May)
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
All eyes on Christina Quarles, the painter inventing a new figurative language
Los Angeles-based artist Christina Quarles is in her element, with two major solo shows underway at Hamburger Bahnhof and Hauser & Wirth Menorca
By Emily McDermott • Published
-
Isaac Julien’s Tate retrospective: multi-screens, ‘sonic tapestries’ and moments of joy
Artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien’s Tate Britain retrospective ‘What Freedom Is to Me’ questions histories, explores activism, but is also full of joy and beauty
By Amah-Rose Abrams • Published
-
Los Angeles exhibitions: the best shows to see right now
Read our ongoing picks of the best new and upcoming LA art exhibitions to see under the California sun
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Marseille’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) reopens with a pop
Amidst social turmoil, Marseille’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) reopens following a four-year facelift with a pop-coloured show by Paola Pivi
By Benoit Loiseau • Published