Baur au Lac 
Salon I & II
Talstrasse 1, Zurich

In collaboration with Galerie Eva Presenhuber, the Baur au Lac Zurich is presenting a new series of works by the Swiss artist Louisa Gagliardi (b. 1989 in Sion, Switzerland), which have been specially created for Salon I and Salon II. This exhibition coincides with Art in the Park XXIII, an outdoor sculpture exhibition in the park of the Baur au Lac.

The series of works is entitled Reunion, as the liminal quality of hotels and conference rooms is a recurring theme in the artist’s work. These spaces are brought to life by the people and interactions that inhabit them for a short period of time. The room’s story transforms completely with each visitor, returning to a dormant, neutral space between them. By creating trompe-l’oeils that directly mirror the French doors in the room, the artist offers windows onto other fictional moments. The title, Reunion, evokes a gathering with people with whom one has a past history. Reunions can provoke a wide range of emotions; they can be joyful or dreadful. While the openings depicted in the paintings are somewhat close to reality, they show surreal spaces that are sometimes vertiginously infinite. The characters inhabiting these spaces seem to be aware of each other’s presence without acknowledging it directly. Visitors are both observing and observed, invited and intruding.

Louisa Gagliardi was born in 1989 in Sion, Switzerland, and lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2024, Gagliardi was the subject of solo exhibitions at Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Vienna, AT; Galerie Eva Presenhuber x TAXA, Seoul, KR, and at Cultuurcentrum Strombeek, Grimbergen, BE. In recent years she has been the subject of shows at Edition VFO, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, CH (2023); Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, CH (2023); National Gallery, Prague, CZ (2022); Swiss Art Awards, Basel, CH (2021); Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, CH (2021); Antenna Space, Shanghai, CN (2020); McNamara Art Projects, Hong Kong, HK (2019); MOSTYN, Wales, UK (2019); and Openforum, Berlin, DE (2018). In 2022, she presented a large-scale work, Tête-à-tête, at Art Basel Unlimited in Basel. Gagliardi’s work has been featured in group exhibitions such as Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, CH (2023; 2022); National Gallery Prague, CZ (2021); Wallriss, Fribourg, CH (2019); UN Art Center, Shanghai, CN (2019); Plymouth Rock, Zurich, CH (2018); Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, CH (2018); Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen, St. Gallen, CH (2018); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, DK (2017); and Museum Haus Kontruktiv, Zurich, CH (2017).