Perrotin’s ten at Art Mumbai: artists and the past
For its inaugural participation in the fair, the gallery presents works united by a conversation with the past: from Takashi Murakami's reinterpretation of Edo period floral motifs to Nikki Maloof's playful deconstruction of the vanitas still life.
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Emmanuel Perrotin brought ten artists to Art Mumbai for the gallery’s inaugural fair appearance in November, each one selected because they work within artistic traditions rather than against them. Takashi Murakami, Nikki Maloof, Daniel Arsham, Vivian Greven, Wim Delvoye, Nick Goss, Bharti Kher, JR, Jean Michel Othoniel and Hugo Toro gathered in Booth C93, united not by style but by how they treat historical reference as a creative resource: the Edo period Rinpa school, classical mythology, the vanitas still life, local legend. What drew Perrotin to this particular selection was permission: the chance to show that inherited visual languages need not constrain a contemporary artist but could liberate one.
Murakami’s Rinpa Flowers reinterpret the floral and natural motifs of Ogata Kōrin through vivid colour, precise line and signature smiling flowers across a luminous gold field. Maloof’s Blue Picnic transforms the vanitas tradition—that medieval moral lesson about the brevity of life—into something that refuses austerity and instead overwhelms the viewer with ornament and colour. Arsham and Greven explore where reality and fantasy converge. Delvoye applies horror vacui, that impulse to fill every surface with ornament, to a fire extinguisher, transforming utility into abundance. Goss turned to the Eel Pie Hotel on the Thames in West London, a venue rich with cultural memory, for the source of Eel Pie Island Sunrise.
Perrotin, founded by Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris in 1990, has spent three decades representing artists who engage openly with art history and craft traditions. His early support for Takashi Murakami’s work with appropriation and repetition gave permission to an entire generation to move beyond anxiety about influence. The gallery operates from Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, New York and Seoul. This booth at Art Mumbai extended that curatorial approach into a fair that connects South Asian collectors and artists with international galleries, positioning the selection as a conversation between European and Asian artistic genealogies.
Daniel Arsham and Vivian Greven both draw on classical heritage, exploring the boundary where reality and fantasy converge. Their works hold the weight of art history while remaining entirely present and strange. Wim Delvoye takes another approach, applying horror vacui, that impulse to fill every surface with ornament, to the mundane fire extinguisher, transforming utility into abundance.
Nick Goss turns to local history and the particular myths of place. Eel Pie Island Sunrise belongs to a series inspired by the Eel Pie Hotel on the Thames in West London, a venue rich with cultural memory. Bharti Kher, JR, Jean Michel Othoniel and Hugo Toro complete the ten-artist selection, each bringing their own relationship to ornament, figuration, material and the conversations embedded in image making itself.
What unites them is not a style but a sensibility: the understanding that tradition is not a weight but a language, something to be spoken fluently and remade in the act of speaking. The selection moves across continents and mediums, yet each artist shares this fundamental approach to historical reference. The gallery’s booth holds these works together in white light, each one a different answer to the question of what we inherit and what we make of it.
Art Mumbai ran through 15 November at the Mahalaxmi Race Course. Perrotin’s Booth C93 held works from the ten artists, each engaging with tradition as both constraint and opportunity.
Perrotin, the Paris-based gallery founded by Emmanuel Perrotin in 1990, has built its reputation on representing artists who engage with contemporary practice while drawing openly on art history, craft traditions and visual culture. The gallery operates from five locations: Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, New York and Seoul. This inaugural presence at Art Mumbai extends that curatorial philosophy into a fair known for connecting South Asian collectors and artists with international galleries, positioning the booth as a conversation between European and Asian artistic genealogies rather than an assertion of Western dominance.
Emmanuel Perrotin’s early championing of artists working with appropriation, repetition and ornament, from Takashi Murakami’s early 2000s collaborations with Louis Vuitton to his ongoing representation of designers and sculptors who treat historical reference as a creative resource, gave permission to an entire generation to move beyond the anxiety of influence. The gallery’s participation at Art Mumbai extends this vision: each artist selected for Booth C93 works within traditions not against them, finding in inherited visual languages the raw material for new forms. This curatorial stance has shaped contemporary art practice across two decades.
Art Mumbai runs through 15 November at the Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai. Perrotin’s booth, C93, brings together works from ten artists, each engaging with artistic tradition as both constraint and opportunity. Visitors can encounter Murakami’s Rinpa Flowers, Nikki Maloof’s Blue Picnic, and works by Daniel Arsham, Vivian Greven, Wim Delvoye, Nick Goss, Bharti Kher, JR, Jean Michel Othoniel and Hugo Toro. The fair offers direct access to the gallery’s current thinking about how historical reference functions in contemporary practice.
Imagery courtesy of Perrotin (@perrotin).
