Here, shadow is not conceived as the negative of light, but as that which accompanies every presence and extends its existence.
From 17 September to 24 October 2026, PM GALLERY presents The Shadow of Life, an exhibition bringing together works by Maurice de Vlaminck, Ossip Zadkine, Benjamin Vorms and Masha Schmidt.
Bringing two major figures of modern art into dialogue with two contemporary artists, the exhibition considers four practices separated by more than a century yet connected by recurring questions: the presence of the body, the memory embedded in places, and matter's capacity to retain the imprint of lived and sensory experience.
The Shadow of Life does not propose a linear art-historical genealogy. It examines the visual and conceptual resonances that emerge when these works occupy a shared space. Through this encounter between modern art and contemporary practice, PM GALLERY approaches form as a site of persistence, one in which traces of life remain active across time.
This idea of persistence is concentrated in the exhibition's title. Here, the shadow is understood as an inseparable extension of presence, a residual form through which existence continues to register. It may inhabit a landscape, a face, a gesture or the physical substance of the work itself. By assembling four practices spanning more than a century, The Shadow of Life draws attention to the forces that pass through images, objects and historical periods, and to the ways in which art gives duration to what is otherwise transient.
