One Friday night this past September, Nicolas Party hosted a dinner party at The Modern Institute. Seated on stools painted like elephants, each of the twenty-four invited guests ate a seven-course meal designed by the artist, which included a single oyster; a fish; a sausage and a poached pear presented on a plate painted by Party. Indeed the table and even the table’s under-belly were painted in his signature, softly colored swirls. There is no doubt that painting is the departure point for Party’s practice, but one would be remiss to dismiss the social aspect of Party’s work, which is highlighted by his frequent collaborations with other artists to create performances and prints. Party’s practice is embedded in a delicious and tender sense of humor. As a painter, he creates still-lifes, landscapes and site-specific installations depicting decorative and geometric patterns, as well as ambiguously anthropomorphized teacups, fruits and trees. In his current solo exhibition at Galerie Gregor Staiger in Zurich, “Still Lives & Big Naked Women,” Party’s habitual motifs are rendered in black and white, except for an idiosyncratic collection of rocks painted like halved fruits – oranges, apples and limes – which have been marooned on the gallery office floor. (Alhena Katsof)