THE FIELD at Mennour Gallery: An Exhibition from Outer Space

 Vues de l’exposition / Exhibition views, « Larry Bell & Liam Everett, The Field », Mennour (6 rue du Pont de Lodi), 2025. © Larry Bell, Adagp, Paris, 2025, © Liam Everett.  Photo. Archives Mennour. Courtesy Larry Bell and Hauser & Wirth; Liam Everett and Mennour, Paris.

By LARA PAN September 23, 2025

Over the past few years, the artistic program of Mennour Gallery has stood out for its bold and thoughtful curatorial choices. Among them, the arrival of Liam Everett nearly a decade ago was particularly significant. His practice had already captured my attention long before joining Mennour Gallery, and his approach to painting has often been described as almost alchemical canvases that seem to emerge as if conjured by a kind of painting wizard. Each work carries an element that feels not entirely of this world, as though transmitted from some outer dimension.

 Portrait Liam Everett - Photo. Archives mennour
 

The Field marks the second collaboration between Liam Everett and Larry Bell, two artists whose practices, though distinct, resonate with one another in their pursuit of transcendence. Bell, another magician in his own right, played a formative role in shaping the Los Angeles art scene from the 1960s onward. Alongside contemporaries such as James Turrell, Fred Eversley, and Robert Irwin, he expanded the perceptual and sculptural possibilities of light, space, and material. Bell’s Elin 71 vapor drawing, one of his iconic works, epitomizes his exploration of what might be described as “the space between spaces”—a liminal zone where material and immaterial, presence and absence, surface and atmosphere converge.

Portrait Larry Bell 2021- Photo © Jason Collin ©
 

Seen together, Everett and Bell form a dialogue across generations, united by their interest in perception, process, and transformation. If Everett’s paintings invoke a cosmic alchemy, Bell’s glass works render visible the intangible qualities of light and spatial vibration. The Field thus becomes more than an exhibition: it is an encounter with two practices that expand the field of vision itself, gesturing toward a realm where the boundaries of matter, perception, and imagination dissolve.

It was a privilege to experience this beautiful exhibition and to have the chance to ask Liam few questions, before his departure to Brussels, where he presents new works at Greta Meert Gallery.

LP: Liam, a very simple question: how did The Field first come into being?

LE: A simple question to which I’m obliged to offer a somewhat complicated response. The Field is a project I had not anticipated when I began these paintings. The exhibition was the idea of the team at Mennour. Kamel wanted to give us the opportunity to elaborate on an earlier project organized by Altman Siegel Gallery in San Francisco, which was shown in spring 2025. With the help and curation of Emma-Charlotte Gobry-Laurencin and Christian Alandete, The Field broadened the depth and range of this dialogue with Larry Bell’s work and allowed the conversation to become something beyond the scope of its original intentions.

Vues de l’exposition / Exhibition views, « Larry Bell & Liam Everett, The Field », Mennour (6 rue du Pont de Lodi), 2025. © Larry Bell, Adagp, Paris, 2025, © Liam Everett. Photo. Archives Mennour. Courtesy Larry Bell and Hauser & Wirth; Liam Everett and Mennour, Paris.

LP: You are gifted with synesthesia. Could you describe how these blended senses shape your decisions regarding color, texture, composition, and material, and how they guide your creative process from idea to finished work?

LE: My experience with synesthesia has evolved over the years. Initially it showed up as a limitation, as it often felt like a foreign element, an intrusion that was influencing the decisions in the studio, especially when it came to color and compositional decisions. This restraint has gradually transformed into an asset, a sort of silent or invisible collaborator that serves as a contre force, challenging me to engage with the practice in unpredictable ways. The most discerning aspect of synesthesia for me is that color is always ahead, out of reach, as it not only appears as a gradation from the UV spectrum but also a complicated series of structures that display all the characteristics of form and sound. In fact the only thing that appears consistent for me with color and therefore remains the principal criteria when making compositional choices are aspects of velocity and temperature.

LP: I know we share a great deal of common ground in our scientific research. Could you tell me about your exchange with Larry? I imagine that collaborating with Larry Bell was a transcendent experience. What insights emerged from the dialogue between you both?

Vues de l’exposition / Exhibition views, « Larry Bell & Liam Everett, The Field », Mennour (6 rue du Pont de Lodi), 2025. © Larry Bell, Adagp, Paris, 2025, © Liam Everett. Photo. Archives Mennour. Courtesy Larry Bell and Hauser & Wirth; Liam Everett and Mennour, Paris.

LE: This collaboration has expanded both the context and content of how I perceive my work. Despite the relatively small scale of Larry’s maquettes, the visual space they occupy is expansive and elusive, as they seem to simultaneously reflect and absorb the light in the room. This incitement of both transparency and reflectivity within a single system poses a radical set of questions about the two-dimensional constraint of painting. It has encouraged me to consider the broader nature of light not only as a source of illumination but, more importantly, as a reservoir of information.

LP: The complexity of The Field is vast, making it nearly impossible to encompass all its dimensions within a brief text. In closing, could you share which perspectives within The Field you and Larry found most resonant, and what you ultimately hope the viewer will experience through them?

LE: Because this collaboration was so thoroughly supported and curated by the gallery, I have the strangely liberating sense that the result is something beyond my own making. With The Field, a dialogue has occurred that feels independent of both Larry’s sculptures and my paintings, like an abstract language several precarious paces ahead. This is the kind of rare experience that most nourishes one’s practice, when an artist is confronted with results far removed from their original intentions. Ultimately, I hope The Field raises questions regarding the ontology of light and perhaps encourages viewers to reconsider their own quotidian relationship to this phenomenon.WM