Stories for a body
May 24, 2026 – September 20, 2026
An icon of rock, fashion, and contemporary art since the 1980s, Kim Gordon is invited to present her multifaceted visual work at the crossroads of visual art, music, and performance. Trained at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, she explores the materiality of gesture, collage, painting, and video through a raw and instinctive aesthetic.
At the Collection Lambert, she takes over all the basement rooms of the Hôtel de Montfaucon. There, she presents a wide selection of works from the past ten years, including several previously unseen pieces. Arranged as a total installation, the ensemble of paintings, watercolors, sculptures, and videos reflects on the place of individuals in a world driven by technological fetishism and the glorification of consumer goods, where the political and the intimate are inextricably intertwined, and where the performing body emerges as a powerful form of possible resistance.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of screenings and performances during the Festival d’Avignon 2026, in collaboration with choreographer and dancer Dimitri Chamblas, who has worked with the American artist on numerous occasions, notably at the Louvre Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, and Chaillot – National Theatre of Dance.
BIOGRAPHY
For over 40 years, Kim Gordon has established herself as a major figure in the contemporary artistic and cultural scene. After studying at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, where she associated with numerous artists including Mike Kelley and Dan Graham, she left California for New York. In 1981, she presented her first exhibition there at the White Columns gallery under the name Design Office. Since then, she has developed an experimental artistic practice fueled by a vision that is as radical as it is subversive, and by an exceptional punk energy, working across a wide range of disciplines.
She is notably recognized for her major role in the history of alternative music as a founding member of the bands Sonic Youth, and later Free Kitten and Body/Head. Her work also extends into the visual arts and writing—including the autobiography Girl in a Band (2015) and the collection of critical and poetic texts Is It My Body? (2014). She has also worked as an art critic, engaged in the field of fashion with the creation of the brand X-Girl, and developed a practice as both an actress and director in film and video.
Today, she continues her explorations in the visual arts, presenting numerous exhibitions around the world, notably at the Deste Foundation in Athens (Greece), the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (Ireland), and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (USA) in 2019; at JUBG in Cologne (Germany) in 2022; at the Brisbane Powerhouse (Australia) in 2024; at the Gnration Art Center in Braga (Portugal) in 2025; at Amant in New York (USA) in 2026; as well as at her New York gallery, 303.
At the same time, she is developing a solo career as a songwriter, composer, and musician. In March 2026, she released her third solo album, Play Me, following The Collective (2024) and No Home Record (2019).