Gagosian is pleased to present Rachel Feinstein’s debut exhibition in Greece. Opening on September 24, Fates features new sculptures, mirror paintings, and works on paper that engage with classical Greek motifs to address archetypes of femininity, memory and memorials, and the intersection of mythology with everyday life.
The exhibition’s centerpiece is a pair of large caryatid sculptures (both 2026) that combine the female figure with architectural forms. These works explore the caryatid’s Hellenic roots, as well as subsequent Roman, Renaissance, and Neoclassical interpretations; Auguste Rodin’s sculpture Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone (1881–82); and Agnes Varda’s short film Les dites cariatides (1984). Each of Feinstein’s caryatids has individual features, wears unique fashions, and carries an identifying object. Helen represents Helen of Troy clutching an apple, an aspect of her myth; Petra is inspired by the protagonist of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972).
Feinstein’s caryatids were fabricated in terra-cotta by Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg, a German ceramics manufactory founded in eighteenth-century Munich. They are life-size and integrated with bases and architectural capitals that elevate them to eight feet in height. For Feinstein, caryatids are symbols of how women uphold the world and its social order. The sculptures are further related to her abiding interest in the representation of women across the history of art and popular culture. Glazed in pastel colors, the works’ polychrome surfaces are informed by those of the original caryatids, which were brightly painted. They explore materiality and the stylistic conventions of classical figuration; terra-cotta clay is heavy, and forms must be modeled for stability, while their poses interpret contrapposto stance and drapery.
Also on view in Athens are mirror paintings that incorporate the figures and architecture of memorial steles that marked ancient Greek tombs. These works represent the past as a mirror that reflects the present world, reinforcing themes of the duality of life and death that run through the exhibition. They are installed with Red (2026), a sculptural relief of a dog lying on a slab. Created to commemorate a friend of the artist, this work sparked her interest in the stele form.
Additionally, Fates features gouache paintings in a circular format with motifs inspired by paintings on classical ceramics, while a related group of sculptures adapts painted and incised designs from ancient Athenian black- and red-figure vases, wrapping them around hollow amphora-shaped volumes and transforming their forms. Feinstein has sculpted these works in copper and terra-cotta, materials that she links with Father Sky and masculinity and with Mother Earth and femininity, respectively. Their narratives appeal to her for the integration of mythic symbolism into the representation of quotidian life, including athletic competitions, fashion, and sex, connecting them to the present.
RACHEL FEINSTEIN
Fates
Opening reception: Thursday, September 24, 6–8pm September 24, 2026–January 9, 2027
22 Anapiron Polemou Street, Athens
