Image: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams
MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, will present ‘Laurent Grasso: Metaphysical Maze’ from November 7, 2026, in the museum’s Building 5. Described by the institution as the largest exhibition to date in the United States devoted to the French conceptual artist, the project will bring together film, painting, sculpture and architectural intervention in an immersive installation.
The exhibition will include Grasso’s most emblematic films together for the first time, alongside ‘Cosmic Drive’, a new commission produced during his research residency at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. The film is identified as being in progress and is expected to form a central part of an installation that extends beyond the medium of cinema.
Conceived as a journey, ‘Metaphysical Maze’ is intended to create a contemplative environment in which visitors’ perceptions of time and linearity are unsettled. The museum says that works will be presented without specific titles, dates or identifying labels, allowing the paintings, sculptures, films and architectural elements to function as a connected environment rather than as separately documented objects. “Entering my exhibition,” Grasso says in the exhibition materials, “is like walking into a forest — an imaginary landscape where you wander without trying to identify every species of tree.”
The project also links Grasso’s practice to the history of American landscape painting. Recent works in his ongoing ‘Studies Into the Past’ series draw on the Hudson River School, particularly the 19th-century painter Frederic Edwin Church. MASS MoCA will partner with Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York, and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, on satellite programming and exhibitions. Burlington City Arts in Burlington, Vermont, will host a film projection. The source material does not specify dates or the precise scope of those presentations.
Born in France in 1972, Grasso has developed a practice focused on the visual possibilities of electromagnetic energy, radio waves and naturally occurring phenomena. He is a recipient of the Marcel Duchamp Prize, the Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Meru Art*Science Award in Bergamo, Italy. His work has been shown at institutions including the Musée d’Orsay, the Jeu de Paume and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.; the Bass Museum of Art in Miami; the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; and the Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum in Shanghai.
Grasso has also created permanent public works including ‘Solar Wind’ on the Paris ring road and ‘Roots of the Future’, a group of sculptures installed for the 2024 Paris Olympic Village. He was commissioned to make a site-specific ceiling installation for the new train station in Châtillon-Montrouge as part of the Grand Paris project. ‘Metaphysical Maze’ is curated by Denise Markonish, guest curator.
The opening program at MASS MoCA begins with ‘In Conversation: Laurent Grasso’ on November 7 at 4 p.m., followed by an opening celebration at 5:30 p.m. The exhibition’s major support is credited to Anne and Greg Avis, Etant donnés, a program of Villa Albertine, and Wolf Gordon; Building 5 exhibitions are also supported in part by the MASS MoCA Ambassadors.
