Grand Opening | Fontainebleau Concretions: Nature's Finest Sculptures

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — TASWIRA GALLERY marks the beginning of a bold new era with its first major sculpture exhibition: Fontainebleau Concretions. This landmark presentation introduces Seattle audiences to the rare sandstone formations known as gogottes—sculptural marvels shaped by nature nearly 30 million years ago. With this debut, TASWIRA and The Passenger Collection bring to the city a vision of art, luxury, and cultural storytelling unlike anything Seattle has seen before.

Born in the Oligocene epoch, The Fontainebleau Concretions emerged when silica-rich groundwater bound the quartz sands of Fontainebleau, France, into curving, layered forms of uncanny elegance. With folds recalling Baroque drapery and contours echoing biomorphic abstraction, they occupy a rare position between natural phenomenon and sculptural masterpiece.

Their history is as extraordinary as their form. Louis XIV selected Fontainebleau Concretions to adorn the gardens of Versailles, most notably in the Grove of the Three Fountains designed by André Le Nôtre. Since then, they have traveled from royal grounds to museum collections, with monumental examples housed today at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the Natural History Museum in London.

Across centuries, Fontainebleau Concretions have ignited the imagination of modern and contemporary masters:

• Jean Arp embraced their biomorphic vitality.
  
• Henry Moore explored voids and volumes that echo their natural cavities.
  
• Louise Bourgeois found in them folded, tactile inspiration for her sculptural language.
  
• Surrealists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte recognized their dreamlike, otherworldly spirit.
  
• Minimalist and Land Artists, including Donald Judd and Richard Long, embraced their natural abstraction as precursors to contemporary practice.
  

Building upon this lineage, TASWIRA highlights the dialogue between the gogottes and Black artists whose practices resonate with geology, biomorphism, and material transformation:

• Thaddeus Mosley echoed their biomorphic vitality through monumental wooden forms.
• Flinto Chandia mirrored their mineral poetics in stone carvings of spiritual resonance.
• Torkwase Dyson reimagined their geologic morphologies through Black spatial poetics.

“The Fontainebleau Concretions remind us that nature was the first abstract artist,” says curator Valeria Likhova. “They collapse the boundary between geology and art history, showing us how deep time shaped forms that artists have continued to reimagine across generations.”

Visitors will encounter:

• Monumental sculptures evoking Baroque drapery.
  
• Smaller, jewel-like specimens presented as intimate sculptural treasures.
  
• A curated dinner inspired by the exhibition, celebrating Seattle’s world-renowned culinary scene and drawing connections between form, flavor, and artistry.
  

This exhibition signals TASWIRA’s expanded focus on sculpture and sets the stage for a dynamic program that will bring world-class art dialogues to Seattle.

Born of a friendship in Seattle between Valeria Likhova and Avery Barnes, united by a shared vision of creating exhibitions that dissolve boundaries between art, history, and lived experience. With Fontainebleau Concretions, TASWIRA launches its new sculpture program—introducing audiences to work of global significance while celebrating the artistry of the Earth itself.

The exhibition also marks the Seattle debut of The Passenger Collection, founded by Valeria Likhova. Known internationally for its immersive gatherings and curatorial collaborations, The Passenger Collection debuts as a platform where art and investment converge to shape the future of collecting.

Together, TASWIRA and The Passenger Collection usher in a new era of artistic exchange for the city—one defined by intimacy, rarity, and imagination.

The Passenger Collection is founded on the principle that fine art is both a cultural treasure and a resilient asset class. We guide established collectors, emerging buyers, and institutions alike through every stage of stewardship, offering expertise in art insurance, advisory, corporate art strategy, estate planning, and art-backed financing. With a focus on discretion, stability, and wealth protection, The Passenger Collection ensures that collections—whether newly begun or generationally built—are preserved, enhanced, and positioned as secure investments for the future.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

120 1st Ave S, 120 1st Avenue South, Seattle, United States