Pusher
Merlin James & Édouard Vuillard
in collaboration with Maureen Paley
Halloween at Pusher
Book Launch of Head, by Danielle Neu with a live performance by Danny McDonald and Mori Mori
Followed by one week exhibition of selected photographs from the publication
October 31st - November 7, 2026
Techno-Libertarian Realism
Long Time Coming
Emergency Group Show
Serial
Ghost Finishing School
Her Selected Works with Carlotte S.
Lawless Romantic Underworld
Cavity
Rhythmanalysis
Danaë
Three Miles
Nights at the Circus
Rain Barrel
in collaboration with Maureen Paley
Sep 24 - Oct 30, 2026
This pairing reflects a longstanding affinity. As a painter and critic, Merlin James has engaged with Édouard Vuillard on multiple levels: extensively reviewing the artist's multi-volume catalogue raisonne for The Burlington Magazine, showing Vuillard's works alongside other early modern masters in the exhibition FIELDWORK at 42 Carlton Place, and invoking his name to affirm the validity of painting in his landmark 2002 lecture, Painting per se, at The Cooper Union, New York
Vuillard's golden period falls on the turn of the century, and is celebrated for its quiet, intensely composed painting that favours flat fields of colour and pattern over illusionistic depth. Although the two paintings in this exhibition are separated by almost a century, Vuillard's DNA surfaces through James's own muted palette and compressed compositions. Both painters were in their early thirties when making these works, before each oeuvre would evolve significantly later in their careers.
The exhibition will precede major upcoming surveys for both artists. Vuillard. Théâtres intimes at the Musée d'Orsay (March 2027) and James's solo exhibition at Camden Art Centre, London (January 2027) and a solo exhibition at Vienna Secession (June 2027).