Elmgreen & Dragset arrive in Los Angeles
Pace Gallery presents The Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, the first solo exhibition in Los Angeles by Elmgreen & Dragset, on view from September 13th through October 25th. Spanning the gallery’s main space and adjoining south gallery, the show explores shifts in perception through acts of doubling, resizing, and spatial reduplication.
The Berlin-based duo, known for sculptural interventions that probe identity and belonging, uses the gallery’s architecture as both stage and subject. Each artwork appears at full scale in the main hall, while exact half-size versions are replicated in a carefully constructed miniature of that same space.
Elmgreen & Dragset, installation view, 2025 © Elmgreen & Dragset / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The Alice in Wonderland Syndrome explores Scale and Perception
Elmgreen & Dragset’s Pace Gallery exhibition takes its title from Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, a neurological condition also called Dysmetropsia, in which distortions of size and distance alter one’s sense of reality. The artists translate this condition into sculptural form by choreographing encounters that slip between real and imagined dimensions.
The sequence begins at the gallery‘s reception desk, where a hyper realistic sculpture of a gallery assistant appears to have fallen asleep. From there, visitors enter a terrain where objects expand and contract, as though conjured in her dream. The doubling of artworks across the two gallery spaces underscores the instability of perception, inviting viewers to inhabit the logic of distortion.
Elmgreen & Dragset, September 2025, 2025 © Elmgreen & Dragset / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
reflections of the sky illuminate pace gallery
Among the new works featured throughout Pace Gallery are pieces from the Elmgreen & Dragset’s Sky Target series — circular paintings of drifting clouds rendered on mirror-polished stainless steel disks. Each disk overlays atmospheric fragments with reflective surfaces, merging images of the sky with glimpses of the viewer. Named after locations significant to the artists, the works stage a layered interplay between representation and reflection.
Two additional wall works, referred to by the artists as ‘stripe paintings,’ further this investigation. Vertical bands of sky streaked with contrails alternate with mirrored strips, establishing a rhythm that is activated by movement through the space. The works extend the dialogue between transparency and opacity, image and self-awareness.
Elmgreen & Dragset, The Other David, 2025 © Elmgreen & Dragset / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Placed within both the main gallery and its half-scale counterpart are two marble sculptures that address contemporary conditions of disconnection. One shows two young men in an embrace, each wearing VR goggles, while another depicts a seated figure listening through headphones. The pairing contrasts the immateriality of digital immersion with the permanence of marble, a material tied to centuries of sculptural history.
By grounding mediated experiences in carved stone, Elmgreen & Dragset draw attention to the friction between fleeting virtual engagement and enduring physical presence. The figures appear at once absorbed and isolated, their intimacy mediated by devices that redirect awareness elsewhere.
Elmgreen & Dragset, Il Cielo Sopra Venezia, 2025 © Elmgreen & Dragset / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Elmgreen & Dragset, installation view, 2025 © Elmgreen & Dragset / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
project info:
exhibition title: The Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
artist: Elmgreen & Dragset | @elmgreenanddragsetstudio
gallery: Pace Gallery | @pacegallery
location: 1201 South La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California
dates: September 13th — October 25th, 2025
photography: © Elmgreen & Dragset / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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