Lilian Bourgeat

21 June 2008 to 31 July 2008

The objects of daily life and confrontation to unique situations form the basis of Lilian Bourgeat's work. His objects, "hyperrealists," are much larger than in reality, thus the line between functionality and proportion becomes very thin. He realizes a giant tape measure on which each millimeter equals one centimeter, plastic cups of 40 cm in height that one can drink with (a difficult task if one does not want to spill the contents), push-pins on cork panels 36 cm in diameter, rubber boots 3 meters in height, etc.

By blurring reference marks, Lilian Bourgeat distorts the perception of not only the objects themselves, but also the space where they are installed.

Focusing on the ties between art and world, via the relationship of representation and perception, he questions our comprehension of reality and disturbs the natural process by which we understand the world around us.

galerie frank elbaz
7, rue Saint Claude
75003 Paris

 

 

 

 

Peter Belyi
Pinocchio's Library

19 June - 31 July

Daneyal Mahmood Gallery presents Pinocchio's Library.

 

Modellatura, which generally included an ideal vision of the future, was an extremely popular genre during the 1920s, an age of grand utopias. Not only did artists invest time and energy in creating models of future cities, but conceived their own artworks as indicators for potential technical projects. Peter Belyi's "memorial modelling," however, casts its gaze into the past, to the 1960s and 1970s, a period that saw the existence of one of the last utopian expressions of our era. The artist's intent is to use this "new" genre of representation to search for one of the paradigms of humanity: hope in the future produced by disillusionment with the past.

The wooden puppet Pinocchio is the project's protagonist, incarnating the figure of an architect obsessed with grandiose projects through which he hopes to transform the world, as well as an indissoluble deposit of utopian ideology present in each and every one of us. Like its hero, Pinocchio's Library is made of wood, and its books cannot be opened. They are solid marker stones of useless knowledge, inaccessible and impossible to consult ever again. That which was once a source of knowledge has been transformed into an indissoluble deposit of utopian knowledge, a memorial to utopia itself. And yet Pinocchio's Library is rife with the hopes of each one of us and above all, with the fact that one day the wooden puppet will be transformed into a real child.

Peter Belyi was born in 1971 in Leningrad (today St. Petersburg), where he continues to live and work. His principal solo shows include: La Biblioteca di Pinocchio, Pack Gallery, Milan (2008); Unnecessary Alphabet, Anna Frants Space Gallery, New York, (2007); Danger Zone, Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, New York, (2007); Lenproekt, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2007), SH854, Guelman Gallery, Moscow, (2005); City Heights, Gallery 27 (2001), Cork Street, London.

Belyi has also participated in numerous group shows, including: Reconstruction (2 man show), Atelier 2, Vinzavod, Moscow (2008); Celestial Mechanics, Pulkovo Observatory, St. Petersburg, (2007); Something About Power (2 man show), 2nd Moscow Biennale, Russia (2007); Border Territory, Mars Gallery, 2nd Moscow Biennale, Russia (2007); Architecture Ad Marginum, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2007); Modus R, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, (2006); Post Modellismus, Krinzinger Progekte Galerie, Vienna, (2005). His artwork has been included in the permanent collections of: The Margulies Collection, Miami; the Russian State Museum, St Petersburg, Russia; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Ashmolean Museum, Cambridge.

(Excerpted from Olesya Turkina)
Image:
Peter Belyi
Pinocchios Library
reclaimed wood and mixed media

Robert Morris - Morning Star Evening Star

26 June 2008 to 29 Aug 2008

The exhibition 'Morning Star Evening Star' at Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers London presents a new body of work by the American artist Robert Morris whose groundbreaking oeuvre ranges from minimal sculpture to conceptual art and performance. This new series of sculptures which originates from a period of 27 years consists of four wall-mounted reliefs entitled 'Morning Terror', 'Evening Terror', 'Normal Terror' and 'Standard Terror'. Like monuments for the victims of the 'war on terror', Morris' timely sculptures can be seen as modern cenotaphs, public monuments erected in the memory of victims of war and other political disasters. By differentiating between individual qualities of the feeling of terror, Morris manages to transform its abstract character into a palpable, real experience. 'Morning Terror' for example shows skeletons, faces of adults and babies emerging like death masks out of a white background. Four articles of children's clothing are suspended on a white steel rod which stretches across the panel. Like on an outdoor clothesline the white dresses seem to blow in the wind. The alleged innocence of this image however quickly collapses as the clothing is highly codified: the little girl's dress symbolises the innocent losses of war whereas the hooded capes refer to the iconic photographs of torture victims in Abu Ghraib. The centerpiece of this exhibition however is 'Standard Terror', a monumental American flag which can barely be contained in its broken frame. It is the subtlety of the symbolic figures in the frame which consist of wrecked weapons, outstretched arms, hands scratching through this deadly material and the two 'mute' paint pots that give this work its powerful presence.

The political urgency of 'Morning Star Evening Star' however does not override the formal rigour and the art historical references manifested in the work. The sculptures are deeply informed by the legacy of historical sculpture such as Renaissance church portals and particularly Auguste Rodin's 'The Gates of Hell'. The American flag is a reference to the work of Jasper Johns who was an important early influence for Morris. The painterly touches of 'Normal Terror' and 'Evening Terror' produced by using encaustic which was first introduced by Johns further indicates Morris' roots in post-Abstract Expressionist art.

Robert Morris (b. 1931) is one of the most important American artists of the post-war generation. Highly influenced by Abstract Expressionism, he developed an interest in the relationship between art, gesture and the body which resulted in groundbreaking minimal sculptures using a variety of media such as lead, plaster and felt. Morris was deeply involved in the Judson Church dance scene where he participated in performances by Yvonne Rainer and Simone Forti. His 1971 Tate Gallery retrospective which presented participatory sculptures was closed after only five days due to health and safety reasons. His infamous self-portrait which showed him in S&M gear for an Artforum ad in 1974 caused outrage amongst critics. In the late 1970s Morris turned to large-scale drawings and paintings. Morris' work has been represented in numerous museum solo exhibitions including New York's Whitney Museum of American Art in 1970, the Art Institute of Chicago in 1980, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in 1986 and Washington D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1990. In 1994 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York organised a major retrospective of the artist's work which traveled to the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg and the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. Morris is Professor at the New York Hunter College.

Image:
Robert Morris, Standard Terror, 1981-1987-2008
Wood, encaustic, felt flag (1981), 4 fiberglass casts (1987), oak bench, rubber buckets,
lead, steel brackets, aluminum angle braces, 259,08 x 274,32 cm, 102 x 108 inches

Courtesy of the artist and Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Cologne Munich London
 
Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers London
7A Grafton Street
London W1S 4EJ

 

 

 

 

July 17-18 - Painting / Drawing

July 24-25 - Summer Shows