David Byrne

Pace is pleased to present a special installation of drawings by artist David Byrne at its New York flagship. Drawn on the walls of the gallery’s stairwell landings between its first and seventh floors, these nine drawings reflect Byrne’s surreal and playful sensibility.

For these works, which he produced over the course of several days in April 2025, Byrne has rendered his figures at life-size in the hope that the public will “confront” and experience them in new ways. The drawings will be on view indefinitely.

Throughout his five-decade-long career, Byrne has nurtured a fine arts practice spanning drawing, photography, installation, performance, and design. The artist presented his first major exhibition with Pace in 2003 in New York.

David Byrne was raised in Baltimore where he briefly attended the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 1971 after transferring from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Byrne studied photography, performance, and video production at MICA. In 1975 Byrne co-founded the group Talking Heads, who in the 80s introduced an innovative visual approach to their performances. Byrne has been involved with photography, drawing, installations, performance and design since college and has been publishing and exhibiting his work since the 1990s. Like his music, Byrne’s visual work has the capacity to elevate and transform ordinary elements into iconic ones and challenges our fundamental notions of what can be classified as art.