At Pace L.A., David Lynch Is Memorialized by the City That Inspired Him

Before David Lynch was a filmmaker, he was an artist. At least, this is how he began—painting at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts before becoming the legendary, genre-bending director of works like Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet—and how he saw himself. Now, following his passing in January 2025, Pace Los Angeles will begin to pay ode to his lifelong practice with David Lynch: L.A., a show of 35 black and white and color photographs exploring the visionary’s relationship with the city that was his home and enduring inspiration for 55 years. The show is a prelude to a just-announced LACMA retrospective, which is in early development, in conversation with other museums.

“We all consider him one of the most creative minds in the last half-century in our culture. But within the art domain, he had a very serious practice and a unique vision of what he was doing,” says Bill Griffin, managing partner at Pace Los Angeles and Lynch’s gallerist since 2009. “What struck me from the beginning was how serious and committed he was. He saw himself through that lens, as a visual artist. Everything else came from that source.”

The exhibition looks to the atmosphere of Los Angeles and the feelings of dark glamour, isolation, beauty, and chameleonic shapeshifting that define the city and underlie the distinctly moody surrealism in Lynch’s work. It features five photographic series made from 1979 to 2008. The sensual Figures and Smoke captures glimpses of women inhaling and exhaling, haze blurring their taut red lips. L.A. “portraits” look to seemingly abandoned and industrial zones of the city, framing forgotten sets with cinematic grandeur. Black-and-white nudes turn the female body into a foreboding landscape; four works show a female nude on a sofa, digitally manipulated for a twist on the classic odalisque. “He’s looking and knows of this, but completely taking it in a new direction,” says Genevieve Day, the senior director at Pace in Los Angeles, who curated the show alongside Griffin. “They become these formless figures that we recognize, but given his total unique spin.” So-called “Kits”—images of disassembled objects labeled and arranged—are the final series in the show. “They’re very humorous and utilitarian at the same time,” Day says.

“This is just not something light and poppy,” Griffin adds. “This is somebody who’s fully committed and immersed. It’s an incredible body of work. People look at art in a museum and they spend something like 3.4 seconds looking at artwork. With David’s work, you really have to give yourself to the work. You have to spend time with it.”

“It’s going to be really incredible for people to experience this much broader, very deep and long career he’s had as a visual artist,” says Day. “With David Lynch, you are always going to be surprised. There’s always going to be mystery in what he does.”

David Lynch: L.A. runs from September 19th to December 23, 2026 at Pace Los Angeles.