PAUL MAHEKE
Born in 1985
Lives & works in Montpellier

Across various forms and artistic disciplines, Paul Maheke has sustained a longterm exploration into the ways that marginalised bodies, narratives and histories are made visible and invisible. Resisting a probing of identity that sits solely within the framework of identity politics, Maheke’s trajectory has continuously been channelled through spectral sensations. The artist has called in ghosts, spirits and non-human beings into his works to invite a re-orientation to the way that we, the audience, are able to perceive; which is to say, to reframe the way that we are able to see, feel and listen.

In reconfiguring the sensible, Maheke seeks to shift the dominant systems of discourse production and understanding that heavily depend on representation, visibility and legibility as the ultimate forms of truth, value and/or power. Instead, the artist nurtures the formation of a self through a state of in-betweenness; one where esoteric, spiritual, queer and embodied knowledge(s) help Maheke garner the potential for prophecy. Eliel Jones

À travers différents médiums et formes, Paul Maheke poursuit une recherche sur la manière dont les corps, les récits et les histoires marginalisés sont rendus tour à tour visibles et invisibles. Résistant à la notion d’identité comme définie par les politiques identitaires, la trajectoire de Paul Maheke s’est construite autour de présences spectracles. L’artiste invoque des fantômes, des esprits et des êtres non-humains, de sorte à réorioenter notre perception, plus précisément la manière dont nous pouvons voir, ressentir et écouter.

En reconfigurant le sensible, Maheke cherche à faire basculer les systèmes hégémoniques de production du savoir, qui dépendent largement de la représentation, la visibilité et la lisibilité comme formes ultimes de la vérité, de la valeur et du pouvoir. L’artiste cultive à la place l’idée d’un moi qui se formerait dans un état d’entre-deux, état dans lequel les savoirs ésotériques, spirituels, queers et incarnés permettent à Maheke de rassembler les potentiels pour de nouveaux futurs.

In spite of my own desire to see you disappear
28 September—30 November 2024
Mercer Union, Toronto, CA
© Vuk Dragojevic.

All the messages are emotional
25th Ricard Prize, 2024
Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris, France

To be blindly hopeful
23 March 2024 - 29 June 2024
MOSTYN Contemporary gallery and visuals art Center - Llandudno, Wales, UK

The Purple Chamber
ICA Milano
26/10 — 10/12/2023
© Andrea Rossetti & Tiziano Ercoli

L’Origine de la mort
Lafayette Anticipations, Paris
September 16 - 17, 2023
© Martin Argyroglo

Performance The Origin of Death
Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway
June 2023
© Jan Khür / Abrakadabra

Un lac inconnu
Bally foundation, Lugano, CH
2023
© Andrea Rossetti

The Origin of death, Performance, 2023
Shifted Realities, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, CZ
16/03/2023 - 11/06/2023
© Libor Galia

Shifted Realities
Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, CZ
16/03/2023 - 11/06/2023

We took a sip from the devil's cup
Project Art Centre Dublin, Ireland
2022

YOU & I
Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia
© Martin Polák

AS THE DAYS MOVE INTO NIGHTS, 2022
Diagonale, Montréal, Canada

Temporary Atlas: Mapping the Self in the Art of Today
MOSTYN, Llandudno, UK
June 25 - September 25, 2022

Breaking Waters
CAC, Cincinnati, USA
May 6 - August 14, 2022
© Wes Battoclette

British Art Show 9
Aberdeen /Wolverhampton, UK
2021/2022
© Mike Davidson
© Stuart Whipps

FIAC
Grand Palais Ephémère
October 2021, Paris, France
© Aurélien Mole

Futur Generation Art Prize
Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine
October 2021 - January 2022
© PinchukArtCentre & Maksym Bilousov

Screenshots from "Mauve, Jim and John", 28 : 05 min, 2021
Produced by Artangel

Taboo Durag
Performance at Goodman Gallery, London
9th July 2021.
© Damian Griffiths

(in)visible
Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden
June 2021 - January 2022

Taboo Durag, A light barrel in a river’s mouth
Glasgow International, Glasgow, UK, 2021
© Eoin Carey

The Mauve Hour
Sultana Summer Set, Arles, FR
May - July 2021
© François Deladerrière

Vanille Bleue, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, April - May 2021

An apology, a pill, a ritual, a resistance
Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada
March - August 2021
© Blaine Campbell

La Clinique du Queer
Maison Populaire de Montreuil
September 2020 - February 2021
© Aurélien Mole

Possédé.e.s
MOCO, Montpellier, FR
September 2020 - May 2021
© François Deladerrière

The Spectral Forest
Nida Art Colony, Nida, Lituania
August - November 2020
© Ansis Starks

La Pleine lune dort la nuit, Musée d’art contemporain de la Haute Vienne, Rochechouart, France, February - September 2020

HERE AND NOW - Transcorporealities
Museum Ludwig, Köln, DE, 2019
© Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln / Nina Siefke

OOLOI
Triangle France - Astérides, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, 2019
© Aurélien Mole

Levant, Ludlow 38, New York, USA, 2019
© Carter Seddon / Goethe-Institut, New York

21e Prix Fondation d’entreprise Ricard : Le fil d’alerte, Fondation d'entreprise Ricard, Paris, France, 2019
© Aurélien Mole / Fondation d’entreprise Ricard

Seeking After the Fully Grown Dancer Deep Within, Performance part of Meetings on Art, 58th Venice Biennale, 2019
© Riccardo Banfi / Courtesy Delfina Foundation and Arts Council England.

A fire circle for a public hearing, Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art, Netherlands, 2019
© Gunnar Meier

Diable Blanc, Sultana, Paris, France, 2019
© Aurélien Mole

Dans l’éther, là, ou l’eau, À Cris Ouverts - 6th édition des Ateliers de Rennes - Biennale d’art contemporain, Rennes, France, 2018 © Aurélien Mole

Letter to a Barn Owl, Kevin Space, Vienna, Austria, 2018
© Maximilian Anelli-Monti.

Give Up the Ghost: Baltic Triennial 13, Lithuania, 2018

Le centre ne peut tenir, Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris, France, 2018
©Pierre Antoine - ©ADAGP

The Distance is Nowhere
Manifesta, Palermo, Italia, 2018
© Paul Maheke, Sophie Mallett, Stella Sideli, GAM Palermo and Overalls Adv

Familiar familial place of confusion (channel), Performance in collaboration with Simon and Alix Maheke, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2018
© Hervé Veronese

A fire circle for a public hearing, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK, 2018
Produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London. Commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery and Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art, Middelburg © Mark Blower

Habits of care, Blackwood Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2017
© Henry Chan © Toni Hafkenscheid

Acqua Alta, Galerie Sultana, Paris, France, 2017
© Aurélien Mole

The dance floor could never be a story with one voice. The dance floor is packed with stories all pulsating with their own experiences and needs, DRAF, 2017
© Tim Bowditch

Mbu, as part of BMW Live Exhibition: Ten Days Six Nights, Tate Modern, 2017
© Tate 2017, image: Brotherton-Lock

In the Watery Core of those Stories, as part of the Diaspora Pavilion, Venice, Italia, 2017
Courtesy of ICF, Galerie Sultana and the artist
© Francesco Allegretto and Paul Maheke

What Flows Through and Across, Assembly Point, London, United Kingdom, 2017

In Me Everything is Already Flowing, Center, Berlin, Germany, 2016

I Lost Track of the Swarm, South London Gallery, London, UK, 2016