Gagosian is pleased to announce Persephone, Mary Weatherford’s first solo exhibition in Asia, opening at the gallery in Hong Kong on March 24, 2026. In the new paintings on view, Weatherford explores light and color, and pursues her interest in found materials, collage, and neon through a mythological theme that resonates with the changing seasons.
Persephone features luminous paintings in vinyl emulsion paint on linen. Some are augmented by colored neon tubes, seashells, or coral. In Greek mythology, Persephone is stolen from earth to become queen of the underworld; upon her return she presides over springtime renewal. As in the Chinese myth of Nian, a hibernating beast that emerges at year’s end, her story explains the cycle of seasons: when Persephone is abducted by Hades, her mother Demeter’s grief causes all plant life to cease. An eventual compromise requires Persephone to spend part of the year below ground, and the other part on earth, allowing spring flowers to bloom, bees to buzz, and blue summer skies to bring joy. Weatherford’s new series imagines the earthquake of Persephone’s disappearance and her journey into radiance, representing her achievement of new life.
The Hong Kong exhibition unfolds over a sequence of three spaces designed by acclaimed architectural firm Johnston Marklee, each of which can be glimpsed from the one that precedes it. The narrative’s themes of transformation and rebirth have been features of Weatherford’s work since her exhibition I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By at Gagosian New York in 2018. Persephone finds Weatherford interweaving these preoccupations with an exploration of the hero’s journey and coming of age. In this, Weatherford also draws inspiration from early paintings by Robert Smithson that juxtapose above- and below-ground scenes, some of which come from a series inspired by Dante’s Inferno, possibly the most famous and influential depiction of the underworld.
