ART
Thomas Leeroy, Guillaume Bresson |
Written 30 January |
Tuesday 01 June, 11:00Galerie Nathalie Obadia, 75004 [map]Thomas Leeroy, Guillaume Bresson
Galerie Nathalie Obadia presents the first French solo exhibition by Belgian artist
Thomas Lerooy. In his sculptures and drawings Lerooy (born Roeselare, 1981) conjures up a fantastical world that takes beholders to the intimate frontiers of humanity, probing the dark areas and the flaws that define man’s mental and physical limits. Each work evokes metaphysical questions as the artist offers his richly ironic explorations of creation, desire and death.
Lerooy’s work teems with strange creatures and symbols of death. His drawings celebrate an aesthetic tradition reaching back to Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, but also recall the vanitas paintings of the 17th century, mixed in with the grotesque and macabre humour of more recent artists like
James Ensor,
Félicien Rops and
Antoine Wiertz. The drawings and sculptures presented here show the artist exploring the paths and questions of creativity with his characteristic dark humour and sense of the absurd.
Nathalie Obadia also presents the first solo show by
Guillaume Bresson, graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he lives and works.
Bresson uses a technique that strongly recalls classical painting in meticulous compositions which depict modern scenes of urban violence in the manner of historical scenes. He thus draws on mythological tropes and the tradition of history painting (from
Poussin to
Caravaggio) to convey a reality that is resolutely contemporary in its style and in its references to such realities as urban rioting and street fighting. His paintings are made using photographs that are carefully posed and worked out with models and actors. They turn these modern youngsters into mythological heroes, with the colours and brands of their trainers and sneakers becoming the heraldic insignia of the clans they represent.
The realism and detail of these figures, combined with the deliberately composed setting, work to create a convincing if not realistic fiction articulated around complex compositional structures. In this strongly contrasting environment almost limited to two simple tones, silhouettes emerge from darkness and their bodies perform a choreography that takes shape in the middle of car parks, basements and housing projects.
Guillaume Bresson will also feature in Dynasty (June-September 2010), an exhibition focusing on the new generation of French artists co-organised by the Palais de Tokyo and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
| What: | Thomas Leeroy, Guillaume Bresson |
| When: | Tuesday 01 June, 11:00 |
| Where: | Galerie Nathalie Obadia, 3 rue du Cloître Saint-Merri 75004 [map] |
| Transport: | Rambuteau, Hôtel de Ville |
| Cost: | 0EUR |
| Phone: | +33 (0) 1 42 74 67 68 |
| Email: | info@galerie-obadia.com |
| Web: | www.galerie-obadia.com |
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