At the vineyard and cultural center Château La Coste, art is everywhere you look. Few 17th-century Provençal wine estates greet visitors with a spindly Louise Bourgeois spider, invite them into Tadao Ando‘s contemplative concrete chapel, and lead them to a monumental pavilion designed by Frank Gehry. This Fourth of July weekend, the destination’s 600 acres played host to an exhibition—personal, heartfelt, and deeply rooted in its surroundings—that couldn’t have happened anywhere else. Château La Coste’s summer program launched with a celebration of creative collaboration and friendship, centered on the artistic community surrounding Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian.
Against a thrumming backdrop of cypress trees and cicada chirps, the art space’s programming—three shows, each anchoring one of the three galleries across the property—came to life. The retreat may be miles from a major city, but it brimmed with life and creative charge as Johnson and Hovsepian brought their community with them to the art haven for a group show titled “Rashid, Sheree, and Friends,” on view through Sept. 6. The exhibition, which features work by the pair and around 20 of their contemporaries—including Hank Willis Thomas, Sarah Sze, and Lorna Simpson—is a tapestry woven of works created not in isolation, but alongside friends and peers.
“We weren’t interested in forcing a thematic framework onto the work,” says Hovsepian. “Instead, the exhibition reflects a network of relationships and an ongoing conversation between artists. In that sense, the community itself became the organizing principle.” Although the pair, who were married for 15 years, have now separated, the show is a reminder of the vibrant community of friends and collaborators that crystallized around the two.
“There’s something especially rewarding about curating the work of friends,” says Johnson, fresh off the conclusion of his Guggenheim-filling retrospective. “The surprise has been discovering a conversation between these artists that I didn’t know existed until their work was brought together. That sense of unexpected dialogue is what makes this exhibition so much fun.”
It’s a testament to the care and vision that Château La Coste founder Paddy McKillen brings to every show.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that artists need both freedom and time,” says McKillen. “Château La Coste has become much more than an exhibition space—it has become a place where artists return, where friendships are formed and where long-term creative partnerships continue to flourish.”
The weekend began on Friday evening with an intimate dinner hosted by Hovsepian and Johnson at the property’s Argentinian restaurant Francis Mallmann. The following morning, guests ambled around the grounds and explored the artwork. The group show fills Galerie Richard Rogers, a cliffside space cantilevered over the vines of sauvignon blanc and vermentino, tethered to the earth by a lightweight bridge.
The work on view ranges from Annie Morris’s chromatic abstract “Stack” sculptures to theatrical portraits of Black America by photographer Tyler Mitchell. Hank Willis Thomas, who has been friends with Johnson and Hovsepian since 2005 (and photographed Johnson for a CULTURED cover story back in 2016) reflected on how the three of them, who all started out as photographers, have pushed each other to explore new sides of their practices. “Each of us are going into uncharted territory,” says Thomas. “We come back from our creative expeditions and share our learnings.”
Within the white curvilinear walls of the Oscar Niemeyer Auditorium and outdoor pavilions, Johnson’s solo offering includes a selection from his “God Paintings” series along with new site-specific bronzes. At the sunken Renzo Piano Pavilion, Hovsepian stages her own solo show, featuring photography and a cluster of three, large-scale bronze sculptures that the artist has affectionately dubbed “Pregnant Giacomettis.” She was enchanted by the interplay of a material as ancient as bronze and as young as photography.
The site’s architecture also served as a source of inspiration for both artists. “The space has an extraordinary volume, and I wanted to use that volume and make sculptures that felt as though they were moving through the architecture rather than simply occupying it,” Hovsepian says.
On Saturday evening, a bit of American Independence Day festivities found their way to the south of France with tables decked out in stars and stripes and hot dogs on the grill. Aku Orraca-Tetteh, a longtime friend of Rashid’s and a member of Florence + the Machine, arrived directly from tour to DJ beneath the stars. Before long, Soul Train lines stretched across the dance floor. The Hustle even made an enthusiastic comeback. “To immediately arrive and see so many artists you respect—nothing can exchange that feeling,” says Mitchell.
Throughout the weekend, a starry cast of art world and Hollywood favorites breezed through Château La Coste. By Sunday, museum directors, curators, artists, collectors and friends were joined by a handful of familiar faces from entertainment, including Bradley Cooper, Gigi Hadid, Matthew McConaughey, R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, and NBA Spurs star Harrison Barnes. The vernissage picnic became the largest ever hosted at the estate. Through it all, however, art remained exactly where it belonged: at the center.
That spirit was perhaps best articulated by Georgina Cohen, who helped bring the exhibitions and the weekend surrounding them to life, in her remarks at the lunch. She praised Chateau La Coste as a place that encourages visitors to slow down, look closely, and experience the quiet dialogue between art, architecture and nature. “For many of us, Château La Coste is much more than a destination,” she said. “It is a place we return to time and again because of how it makes us feel.”
More of our favorite stories from CULTURED
An Exclusive Look Inside the Property That Houses Jorge M. Pérez’s Sweeping Art Collection
How Lillian Bassman’s Groundbreaking Career Reinvented Fashion Photography
Here’s All the Must-See TV Streaming in July
Peak Summer Is Here. Skip the Stove With These Dishes Best Served From the Fridge.
Sign up for our newsletter here to get these stories direct to your inbox.
in your life?
