For Art Basel Paris, Emalin & Commonwealth and Council are pleased to present a shared stand with artists Daiga Grantina,  Leslie Martinez, and Nikita Gale. The presentation brings together three artists renegotiating the familiar in our visual and material culture through strategies of recycling, folding, binding, and layering, touching on often conflated familial and societal memories to unveil and disrupt gendered and racialized connotations. Each builds a distinct material vocabulary that probes everyday objects with an attention to residue and accumulation, asking exigent questions about our sense of belonging.

Daiga Grantina (b. 1985, Saldus, Latvia; lives and works in Paris) studied at the HFBK University of Fine Arts Hamburg and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Solo exhibitions have been held at the Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw (2024), Z33, Hasselt (2024), Art Museum Riga Bourse (2022); GAMeC, Bergamo (2021); Emalin, London (2021); New Museum, New York (2020); the Latvian Pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); Kunstverein in Hamburg (2017) and Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga (2016). Selected group exhibitions have been held at Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga (2023); the Eleventh Edition of Sequences Biennial, Reykjavík (2023); Sainsbury Centre, Norwich (2023); Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen (2023); Latvian Museum of Art, Riga (2023) X Museum, Beijing (2022); National Gallery Prague (2022); Kunstmuseum Bern (2020); Museum of Contemporary Art Busan (2020); Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (2018); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); Musée d’Orsay, Paris (2018); Kunsthalle Mainz (2017) and Bergen Kunsthall (2016). 

Grantina’s work is in the collections of CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, New York; CNAP Centre National Art Plastique, Pantin; FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkirk; GAMeC, Bergamo; Kunstmuseum Bern; LNMM Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga; Tate, London; and X Museum, Beijing.

Nikita Gale (b. 1983, Anchorage; lives and works in Los Angeles) received an MFA from University of California, Los Angeles (2016) and a BA from Yale University (2006). Solo exhibitions have been held at Petzel, New York (2024); Emalin, London (2024); Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles (2022, 2018); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2022); LAXART (2022); 52 Walker, New York (2022); Anchorage Museum (2021); CIRCA, London (2021); California African American Museum, Los Angeles (2021); MoMA PS1, Queens (2020); and Visual Arts Center, University of Texas at Austin (2019). Selected group exhibitions have been held at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2024); Petzel Capitain (2024); Tate, London (2023); Taipei Biennial (2023); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2023);  Swiss Institute, New York (2022); Cincinnati Art Center (2021); Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin (2021); Nottingham Contemporary (2020); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2019); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); and The Studio Museum in Harlem (2017). Gale is a recipient of Bucksbaum Award (2024); Louis Comfort Tiffany Award (2022), Henraux Sculpture Prize (2022), Fellow of Contemporary Art Fellowship (2021), Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant (2017), Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles (2016). Gale has participated in residencies at Denniston Hill, Woodridge (2023); Fountainhead, Miami (2019); Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2019); Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (2011-14); and Center for Photography at Woodstock (2011).

Gale’s work is in the collections of Cc Foundation, Shanghai; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kadist Art Foundation; Marieluise Hessel Collection, CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;  Pérez Art Museum Miami; The Studio Museum in Harlem; and Tate, London.

Leslie Martinez (b. 1985, McAllen; lives and works in Dallas) received an MFA from Yale University (2018) and a BFA from The Cooper Union (2008). Solo exhibitions have been held at MoMA PS1, Queens (2023); Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles (2023); Blaffer Art Museum, Houston (2023); and And Now, Dallas (2024, 2021, 2020). Selected group exhibitions have been held at Chapter NY (2024); Project Native Informant, London (2024); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2023); Lehmann Maupin, New York (2022); Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2021); and The Latinx Project, New York University (2020). Martinez has participated in residencies at Denniston Hill, Woodbridge (2023); Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Dallas (2020); and Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson (2019). Martinez is a recipient of Latinx Arts Fellowship, Mellon Foundation (2022).

Martinez’s work is in the collections of Dallas Museum of Art; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Pérez Art Museum Miami; Speed Art Museum, Louisville; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.