RIBOT is pleased to present In Abeyance, the second solo exhibition at the gallery by Harrison Pearce (London, 1986; lives and works in London).
The title chosen for this new and unprecedented exhibition project refers to a condition of temporary suspension, a transitory and indefinite state where the subjects of the works seem to find themselves. The stasis evoked by the expression, however, reveals a repressed tension that persists as a possibility. The ambivalence of the term, beyond its literal meaning, is central: on the one hand, its French etymological root points to an idea of aspiration and physical desire, which is emblematically manifested and represented in the gesture of an open mouth stretched between need and vulnerability. On the other hand, in its legal sense, “abeyance” describes the condition of rights without ownership, placed in a phase of temporary indeterminacy. In both meanings, the idea of a possibility emerges—at once visceral and technical—becoming a key to interpreting the entire project.
Painting is the privileged medium through which this condition of suspended tension is explored. The canvases on display, created specifically for the exhibition, feature abstract representations in which biomorphic round forms appear to be restrained and compressed within mechanical structures or architectural elements – recesses, niches, cavities. The constriction that bends and compresses the material of these rounded presences makes them look like soft entities on the verge of exploding; however, the cold pearly and metallic tones chosen by the artist manage to contain and temper the latent energy that could lead the composition to disintegration.
The state of expectation is no longer a neutral condition, but a pause charged with emotional intensity. It is a dense, almost corporeal suspension that places Pearce's works in a new and more explicitly “human” dimension. Body, mind and machine thus become objects to be observed simultaneously, not in opposition but in mutual relation: one is functional to the other. All converge on the pictorial surface, conceived as a privileged space for shaping the unrepresentable — that entanglement of the organic and the mechanical that are not reciprocally exclusive but rather support and define each other.
For the exhibition, Pearce has also created a special series of limited edition works that more explicitly recall to his sculptural-installative practice. Here too, themes such as industrial automation and free will are questioned and involved in a visual dynamic that is both captivating and alienating.
Harrison Pearce (London, 1986) lives and works in London. His solo and group exhibitions have been held at: Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague, 2025; Light Art Museum, Budapest, 2025; Perrotin, Paris, 2025; New Galerie, Paris, 2025-2022; 5th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, 2024; Room 57 Gallery, New York, 2024; MOU PROJECTS, HongKong, 2023; Carl Kostyál, Copenhagen, London, 2022-2021; RIBOT gallery, Milan, 2021; Schlossmuseum, Linz, 2020; Baert Gallery, Los Angeles, 2019; Royal Society of Sculptors, London, 2018; The Lightbox Museum, Woking, 2018; Compton Verney, Warwickshire, 2018; Cello Factory, London, 2017; Venice Biennale, Venice, 2017.
Residences and awards include: Palazzo Monti, Brescia, 2019; Studio Block M74, Mexico City, 2019; Dulwich College, London, 2017; The Koppel Project Hive, London, 2017; Young Contemporary Talent Purchase Prize, 2017; Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award, 2017; City and Guilds of London Art School – Prize for Outstanding MA Show, 2016.
