David Byrne
Fri, May 30
|Pace Gallery
From Talking Heads to talking walls—David Byrne sketches surreal encounters across seven floors of Pace Gallery.
Time & Location
May 30, 2025, 7:00 AM – Dec 31, 2025, 11:00 PM
Pace Gallery, 540 W 25th St, New York, NY 10001, USA
About the event
April 10 – December 31, 2025Pace Gallery, Stairwell Landings, 1st to 7th Floor, New York, NY
Prepare to meet the imagination of David Byrne—not on stage, but on the stairwell. In this unique site-specific installation at Pace Gallery’s New York flagship, the artist, musician, and creative visionary behind Talking Heads turns vertical space into a surreal, interactive experience.
Over several days in April 2025, Byrne transformed the gallery’s stairwell landings with nine life-sized drawings—whimsical, human-scaled figures that invite visitors to “confront” them on their ascent or descent. Whether you're taking the stairs out of curiosity or necessity, these works stop you mid-step with their humor, poignancy, and unmistakable Byrne-ian absurdity.
Far from a traditional gallery show, this installation blends public space, performance, and visual art, reinforcing Byrne’s decades-long exploration of how art functions in our everyday environments. The drawings will be on view indefinitely, becoming part of the building’s living…