ART
Stefan Nikolaev |
Written 30 January |
Friday 18 September, 11:00Galerie Michel Rein, 75003 [map]Stefan Nikolaev
In the new personal exhibition from Stefan Nikolaev the artist exclusively questions the role of object in our increasingly materialistic society. A means to remember memories, an attachment to the past, a tool and a constant presence; the objects of Nikolaev transcend history: from family jewels to ATM machines to rococo tables and a monument to the coyote from the famous Road Runner cartoons, the artist mixes the real and artificial, paying little attention to their original production or their usual purposes.
Born in Sofia in Bulgaria, Stefan Nikolaev has lived half of his life in Paris. Living between two cultures and traditions, two educations and two languages, he attempts to interpret and translate something of the two cultures. In expressing his impressions, he consciously tries to avoid the simplest symbolism or narration.
In What Doesn’t Kill You Makes you Stronger, Fruit of the Loom (2009), human skulls become fruit bowls; revealing an expressionist aesthetic, whilst Cry Me a River (2009), a replica of an ATM machine, is a characteristic example of the dialogue that Stefan Nikolaev constructs between iconoclasm and idolatry.
