Endling at Pace Gallery , 2022

Pace is pleased to present Endling, an exhibition of new annual simulations by John Gerrard, at its 510 West 25th Street space in New York.

Marking Gerrard’s first major solo show with Pace, the presentation will run from June 29 to August 12. The artworks on view in Endling are the result of 20 years of game engine development by the artist.

Gerrard creates virtual worlds in his game engine-based, politically resonant artworks that take the form of simulations. His custom-programmed, generative, digital works have examined issues related to energy production, food systems, information flows, and other timely subjects.

Endling, the title of Gerrard’s exhibition with Pace in New York, refers to the last individual member of a given species before its extinction. This title reflects Gerrard’s interest in the global impact of certain political conditions and behaviors. With these concerns at the core of the artist’s simulations, the exhibition examines the complex relationships between political power, nationhood, energy production, and environmental exploitation.

The exhibition will feature three new and recent large-scale simulations by Gerrard: Flare (Oceania) (2022), Endling (Martha) (2021), and washington.stream (2022). These virtual worlds will run on the local times of their respective subjects—Tonga, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles—during their presentations in New York. Throughout the exhibition’s run, the doors of 510 West 25th Street will remain open, inviting viewers to engage with the public-facing simulations as part of a communal experience. Extending the gallery into the street, Flare (Oceania) will be immediately visible to passersby.

Endling (Martha) is a portrait of the last known American passenger pigeon, who was posthumously named Martha, after First Lady Martha Washington, following the bird’s death in 1914. Gerrard’s simulation draws from historic photographs and recent scans of the bird’s preserved body, showing Martha in her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo, where she spent the final years of her life. The simulation centers on the bird’s unwavering, intense eye contact with viewers, meditating on one of the most catastrophic population collapses in recorded history. Rendered in black- and-white, Endling (Martha), commissioned by Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul, is Gerrard’s first monochromatic simulation.