Pace Gallery’s newly opened Berlin space launches with Reverse Alchemy: Dubuffet, Basquiat, Nava, an exhibition that positions Jean-Michel Basquiat alongside Jean Dubuffet and Robert Nava. Running through June 14, 2025, the show marks the gallery’s expansion into Berlin’s Schöneberg neighborhood at Die Tankstelle—a newly renovated 1950s gas station turned exhibition space, co-operated with Galerie Judin.
The exhibition centers on works on paper by three artists—Dubuffet, Basquiat, and Nava—each known for disrupting conventions of figuration and embracing raw, expressive mark-making. Framed around Dubuffet’s concept of art brut, Reverse Alchemy presents the act of drawing as a form of deconstruction: a move away from the polish of high art and toward elemental gestures, symbols, and immediacy.
Basquiat’s contributions include a selection of drawings from the 1980s, created during the same period as Dubuffet’s final works. The pairing invites reflection on the unspoken dialogue between the two artists, separated by nearly six decades in age but united by a shared disregard for artistic orthodoxy. The exhibition also features recent works by Robert Nava, whose approach extends the expressive and anti-hierarchical lineage embodied by both Dubuffet and Basquiat.
Curated by Oliver Shultz, Pace’s Chief Curator, Reverse Alchemy follows the gallery’s recent solo shows of Dubuffet and Nava in New York and builds on Dubuffet and Basquiat, a 2006 exhibition organized by Pace founder Arne Glimcher. That earlier presentation was one of the first to explore Dubuffet’s direct influence on Basquiat’s aesthetic vocabulary.
The exhibition is presented at Die Tankstelle, a new venue jointly operated by Pace and Galerie Judin, located in a renovated 1950s gas station. It is one of two inaugural shows on view, the other being a Tom of Finland presentation by Galerie Judin. Reverse Alchemy also forms part of Pace Gallery’s 65th anniversary programming, which includes exhibitions of major 20th century artists across its global locations.