Even the birds gave pause features work of artist and former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe and presents a sampling of the breadth of Stipe's creativity - photographs of family and friends, an installation of folded portraits printed on delicate rice paper, brightly painted bronze fox sculptures, and book art portraits of his muses.

Stipe’s exhibition, Even the birds gave pause, takes imagery from his most recent book published by Damiani of the same name as the foundation and expands from there. The artist’s continual exploration of portraiture is the show’s central theme. Stipe’s portraits reflect a variety of different approaches - candid, conceptual, and classical – but always with a poignant sensitivity to the vulnerability of his subjects. The curation of images and objects presents a view into how the artist sees and interprets the world around him. This is Stipe’s first exhibition with the gallery.

Michael Stipe (American, born 1960) is an artist, producer and singer/songwriter. He fronted the band R.E.M. for 31 years, selling over 100 million records and touring the world. As film producer he made over 25 feature films, including Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich, Jim McKay’s En el septimo dia, Chris Smith’s American movie, and Todd Haynes' Velvet goldmine. For the past decade his personal focus has been cross-medium work, incorporating video, soundscape, sculpture, and photographic and digital imagery. Recent photobooks include Volume 1 (with Jonathan Berger, 2018), Our interference times: a visual record (with Douglas Coupland, 2019) a third volume of portraits (2021), and the current Even the birds gave pause (2023), all released through Damiani out of Bologna, Italy. His first institution show was at ICA Milan in December 2023. He is currently completing his first solo album to be released this year. Michael lives in New York City and Berlin.