Fondation Opale's 'ROOTS' Exhibition Bridges Aboriginal Art and Western Modernism in Swiss Alps

Fondation Opale in Lens, Switzerland, presents 'ROOTS,' an exhibition curated by Samuel Gross that juxtaposes Australian Aboriginal art with Western contemporary works. The foundation, Europe's sole center dedicated to Aboriginal art, occupies a cube-shaped building whose façade references 50,000-year-old rock painting patterns from Australia's Western Desert. Collector Garance Primat, heir to a billionaire fortune and sibling of the foundation's founding director Bérengère Primat, supports the institution. The show features Keith Stevens's 2007 painting 'Pilati,' which uses synthetic polymer on linen to depict the terrain of his Pitjantjatjara homeland in South Australia. Works by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, including 'Fire Dreaming' (1996), are displayed alongside pieces by Olafur Eliasson ('Wasted but confident light,' 2021) and Sheila Hicks ('VARMAYANA (The Place of Shining Light),' 2018). Gross also includes Jivya Soma Mashe's 'Ants Spiral' (2010) from India, a 1754 Gregorian reflecting telescope by Claude Paris, and works by Niki de Saint-Phalle and Sam Gilliam. A dedicated room showcases Aboriginal art, featuring Rover Thomas's 'Untitled' (1994) in natural pigments and ochre. Concurrently, a selection from Fondation Opale's holdings of nearly 440 Aboriginal artists is shown at Geneva's Musée Rath in the exhibition 'Elles,' co-curated by Gross and Georges Petitjean. The 'ROOTS' exhibition runs through 2025-26.