MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique in Paris presents 'Pareidolia,' an exhibition of new paintings by London-based artist Daniel Crews-Chubb. The show explores the psychological phenomenon of pareidolia—the brain's tendency to see faces in random patterns—through heavily layered works created with hands, ink, oil, sand, and collage. Three paintings are featured: 'Immortal XXXVIII' and 'Immortal XXXIX' (2026), large-scale works drawing on cultural memory of ancient sculpture, and 'Mask XXIV' (2026), which tests the minimal cues needed for facial recognition. Crews-Chubb's process involves building up and tearing back surfaces over weeks, with charcoal lines added last to define emergent figures.
The exhibition matters because it reframes pareidolia not as a cognitive glitch but as a fundamental condition of perception, challenging viewers to witness their own involuntary pattern-making in real time. Crews-Chubb's work bridges abstraction and figuration through a tactile, material-driven practice that references Cubist masters like Braque and Picasso while remaining distinctly contemporary. The show also continues MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique's mission to revive the legacy of Lucio Amelio's original concept, offering an intimate, single-work exhibition model that keeps art visible day and night.