Artists

Rachel Feinstein

Press release

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.